Mark Bonner delighted with Cambridge character as they end goal drought

Posted Tuesday, December 27, 2022 by PA

Cambridge manager Mark Bonner praised his side’s efforts as they ended their Abbey Stadium goal drought.

Bonner’s side had gone 12 hours and 40 minutes since scoring a home goal in League One until Shilow Tracey struck a superb equaliser only three minutes after Shrewsbury had opened the scoring.

Sam Smith then struck the winner, earning the U’s a first league home win since September 3 and a first victory of any kind in two months.

“I’m really pleased with the effort of the players and the character that they’ve shown” said Bonner.

“Last time here against Plymouth I thought we played really well. Today I think we’ve done enough to win the game, in what was at times a scruffy horrible game.

“Between those two games the lads have put some brilliant work in, so it gives us a little boost of confidence that we need.

“We’re going to be a bit light on numbers now, we’ve got to get through what is going to be a very tough couple of away games (at Derby and Sheffield Wednesday) in the next seven days, but probably two games you can’t look forward to much more.

“We haven’t had the winning feeling here for a while, it feels like ages since people have seen us score, so I’m so happy we’ve scored two goals and people have gone away bouncing.

“I hope the second half livened up a bit and no one left at half time, because I wouldn’t have blamed them if they went home to watch a film. Hopefully they can be really happy with the performance of the players that have given everything to get us a result which we needed.”

Steve Cotterill felt Shrewsbury should have done more but didn’t feel like his side should have been beaten.

“We didn’t do enough in the first half, we’ve got to put them to bed in the second half,” said Cotterill. “We didn’t have enough urgency I felt in our play today to win the game.

“We became so in control of the game that we were only going to get done by a lapse of concentration, maybe a mistake. So it’s a real disappointment. The goal (Shrewsbury’s) was fantastic. The two after it weren’t though.

“We could have done with scoring the goal later on, because then all of a sudden they have to come out and they had to make more of a game of it.

“They’re allowed to make a mistake. They’re going to make a mistake. Individual mistakes is not something we’re into here, it’s collective. We win collectively, we lose collectively.

“We haven’t deserved to lose that game today, no chance. We were the better team by a mile.”