Cambridge United head coach Mark Bonner ‘angry’ to come away from Bristol Rovers with nothing
Head coach Mark Bonner spoke of the anger within the Cambridge United dressing room following yesterday’s 2-1 defeat at Bristol Rovers.
Hosting Rovers, who were promoted last season, went into the game at the Memorial Stadium without a win in their previous eight Sky Bet League One outings.
However, Josh Coburn’s 56th-minute effort secured all three points for Joey Barton’s side, who had earlier seen Greg Taylor’s own goal cancelled out by a Joe Ironside penalty.
Speaking to the club’s YouTube channel after the final whistle, Bonner said: “We’re really angry we haven’t taken something from it or won it.
“We didn’t start well but we got back into it in the second half, deservedly got back into the game and then they get a goal out of nothing really. It’s poor from us, but at that point we’ve been fairly dominant in terms of the possession we’ve had, the chances we created and in the end we have a lot of the ball but we don’t do enough with it and we don’t cause enough problems.
“We’re angry with ourselves for taking nothing out of the game and we probably didn’t have the impetus and energy at the end that we really needed to chase the game. And that’s probably a consequence of the work that went into the Derby and Ipswich games – game three is always tough in that sense.
“We didn’t have enough to turn the game around and so it’s frustrating because Dimi (Mitov, goalkeeper) has had nothing to do in the second half.
“It’s not the end to the week we wanted. It’s a game we wanted to take something from.”
The U’s will now switch their focus to next Saturday’s home clash against Sheffield Wednesday at the Abbey Stadium when they will be aiming to halt a sequence of three straight defeats in the league.
But even though there is no midweek action to prepare for, Bonner has revealed that the workload of the players will still need to be closely monitored.
“What we have had is a very busy start to the season. You end up getting players that are a little bit fatigued and pick up a few injuries and they have to play through those periods,” he added.
“It’s caught up with us a little bit the last couple of weeks so when you get a full week you have to get the balance right between taking them off the grass and getting them some time to recover and refresh and do the work you need to do.
“The reality is we won’t get really good training weeks until November because October is going to be a fairly brutal month in terms of the number of games we play, but we’ll do what we can to get ourselves back in some sort of shape to be a good competitive opposition for Sheffield Wednesday next week.
“It’s been a really tough week for the lads, they’ve worked their socks off in the main for it and to come away with nothing and some bruising defeats is tough, but that’s what it is and that’s the level we’re playing and we’ve got to keep fighting to turn around a couple of horrible results.”
