“I really liked the mentality of the players tonight…”
Mark Bonner lauded the efforts of his Cambridge United side as they overcame ten-man Ipswich Town 1-0 on Tuesday night.
On an evening where his men bowed out of the Papa John’s Trophy despite picking up six points from the group stages, the Head Coach saw the return to winning ways as a building block heading into some crucial encounters in the bread and butter that is Sky Bet League One.
“To win two games in the group and not qualify, you’d probably expect to be able to. But being truthful, I don’t really care (that they are out). It’s tough for us at the minute with the extra games. I know it’s a quiet month, November, but we are absolutely stretched to the bare bones in the squad, and we can do without any extra games.”
The U’s had the upper hand within the opening stages after Kyle Edwards received quickfire yellow cards. Although the Head Coach admitted his dismissal was the wrong decision, he acknowledged the game still had an intensity to it which was a challenge for his XI.
“The quality of their players are excellent, and even with ten men, they make the pitch very big, because they back themselves athletically to be able to cover the ground, which they can.
“You can try and think you can dominate and go and press, but once they get past that, you’re scrambling, because they’re so athletic.”
Ultimately, they got the job done late on, which was undoubtedly deserved after a really encouraging second-half performance topped off by Lewis Simper’s piledriver.
“We’re pleased to win the game, we’re pleased to get some of the players playing that we did, and pleased to move on now and get ready for Port Vale at the weekend, knowing that the road to Wembley is off for this year.”
With his mind now fixed firmly on attempting to secure back-to-back wins on Saturday, Bonner underlined his thought process as he aims on swinging momentum further in their favour.
“We’ve got to make sure we approach the game at the weekend with the same sort of energy and optimism as if we’re on a seven-game winning streak, get to work and see if we can get a result.”
The U’s faithful will hope they’ve just witnessed the night that run was kickstarted.