Cambridge United boss Mark Bonner praises performance during Sky Bet League One defeat to Portsmouth
Cambridge United head coach Mark Bonner was disappointed to see his side take nothing from yesterday’s 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Portsmouth.
The statistics highlighted periods of dominance for the U’s, yet they failed to take any of their chances and ended up losing to Colby Bishop’s 65th-minute header at the back post.
It was a result that saw the gap to Sky Bet League One survival stretch to five points, yet Bonner had no complaints about the way his players approached the fixture.
“We had some brilliant periods of play. We had 17 attempts to their five, our xG is 1.8 to their 0.6 and we’ve had a penalty that doesn’t get given in the second half,” he said.
“Statistically the win probability for us is 98 per cent. Put the ball in the net and that’s a winning performance for us. That’s a really good level.
“On the days where you don’t score, it happens too often for us. On those days, if you’re not a creative team and don’t create chances, which has happened sometimes, they’re the most frustrating ones.
“There’s so many moments in there for us to get ahead where we could win that game.
“They’ll be delighted to get on the bus because they don’t deserve to win. Dimi (Mitov) has had nothing to do all afternoon. They had one spell, scored a goal and it’s a little bit of a signal of where we are.
“It’s a penalty (for Cambridge in the) second half, it's a handball. You get given that when you’re in a better position than we are.
“Sam (Smith) scored an identical goal twice earlier in the season – one against Burton and one against Cheltenham from an identical ball from Liam O’Neil, he just couldn’t quite connect with. He had a good one-on-one in the first half, Liam Bennett and Michael Morrison could score headers in the first half – so many good things. The one that Sam hits, he connects beautifully and it hits Shilow (Tracey) in the face rather than go into the net.
“There is so many periods in that game where we are on top of and hitting a really good level, probably even more so than the Fleetwood game. For us to lose both of those games 1-0 in the last couple of weeks is really tough for everyone to take because we don’t deserve to be on the losing team.
“I thought our levels were really good and we’ve got to find that 12 more times if we can because that’s our only chance to turn those into the points and the wins that we need.”
Both Liam O’Neil and Steve Seddon stepped up their recoveries from injuries with appearances off the bench in the second half, while Harvey Knibbs is closing in on a return to action from an ankle injury.
However, despite being recalled from a loan spell at Chelmsford City, FA Youth Cup star Kai Yearn was not included in the matchday squad.
“He’s ready to go but I don’t think I’d have put him on the pitch today,” added Bonner.
“We always had that as a shape we was going to go to and I thought that the players that came on did well.”