Cambridge United boss Mark Bonner ‘embarrassed’ following heavy Sky Bet League One defeat at Shrewsbury Town
Head coach Mark Bonner has conceded that he felt ‘embarrassed’ by parts of his Cambridge United side’s performance during this afternoon’s 5-1 defeat at Shrewsbury Town.
The U’s started brightly in Shropshire but found themselves two goals down at the break via a Luke Leahy penalty and Jordan Shipley’s effort from distance, which was scored almost 90 seconds past the signalled three minutes of first-half injury time.
Again United were on the front foot early on after the restart, but Matthew Pennington’s 57th-minute goal further extended the hosts’ lead and while substitute Joe Ironside managed to pull one back for Bonner’s men, Christian Saydee and another goal from Leahy rounded off a disappointing afternoon for those that had made the trip to New Meadow.
It is now 14 defeats from the last 19 Sky Bet League One outings for United, who have also dropped to 22nd and are one point from safety.
“I’m a bit embarrassed by the result and the performance in the end,” Bonner told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. “The game didn’t need to go like that, the result didn’t need to be like that and the performance didn’t need to go like that either.
“The game ran away from us completely in the second half once we’d got back into it. The performance was lacking in all the things we needed it to be in the end.
“A poor result, a poor afternoon and another one to add to a bad run of results. We’ve got to sharpen up and do a heck of a lot better because at the minute, the reality is we’re in an absolute fight now and we’ve got 20 games to do it. Hopefully everybody is up for that.”
Asked how their ongoing struggles have impacted on the players mentally – and what needs to change to get the team back on track – Bonner responded: “Do better, work harder, play better, find more quality in what we’re doing, not let games run away from us – all of those things.
“Psychologically you’d have to ask the players in that sense. We became more and more fragile as it went on and they just took it to us in that period of time. We just didn’t have an answer for it.
“We’re all good at saying lots of good things and talking about what we need to do and having a debrief in the dressing room afterwards. I can stand here and talk forever and I wouldn’t listen to me at the moment because I’m not doing a very good job, clearly.
“We’ve got to do miles better. We’re way off where we need to be and we know what the situation is and if we don’t sort ourselves out there is only one thing that’s going to happen. (There’s) 20 games to do better and that’s on all of us to do that.”
