Cambridge United head coach Garry Monk praises players and supporters after win over Mansfield Town

Cambridge United head coach Garry Monk has heaped praise on both the players and supporters after today’s 3-2 home win over Mansfield Town.

The victory ended a run of eight games without a victory in all competitions for the U’s and it also moved them off the bottom of the League One table – but it did not come without plenty of nervy moments towards the end of the encounter.

Having made all of their substitutions, Cambridge were forced to play in excess of eight minutes of stoppage time with 10 men when Zeno Ibsen Rossi was forced off with an injury that he suffered in conceding a penalty, which was duly converted by Lee Gregory.

And Monk believes that is when the Cledara Abbey Stadium faithful came to the fore.

He said: “Everyone played their part today – especially when we went down to 10 men, the crowd sensed that they needed to get up and give the players a boost and try to cajole them into getting across the line.

“From the terraces to the pitch everyone has played their part today and that’s crucial for every game we play for the rest of the season – home and away.

“That’s the only way we can get what we need. We played really well and it shows that if we stick together we can get results. We have to fight really hard for them.

“I can always be critical but it’s really hard today because I thought everyone did their role and we deserved to win the game – that’s the most important bit. We were excellent for the large majority of the game. We got what we deserved today and it’s nice to be able to say that.”

On the down side, Rossi was forced off with a suspected dislocated shoulder, while new goalkeeper Marko Marosi was substituted during the first half with a hamstring problem.

Both players will need to further assessed by the medical team, but Monk is expecting neither to be ‘short term’ absentees as the injury list continues to grow.

He added: “It’s another innocuous couple of incidents. The doctor has said Marko has done his hamstring but we’ll see, we don’t know the diagnosis until the scans.

“Zeno is the same thing. We know it’s shoulder but from your gut, they’re not going to be short term ones are they? It’s typical, we seem to be facing a lot of that.

“We’ll just deal with it again. They’re huge blows but the most important bit is the three points.”