Lincoln City 1-1 Cambridge United: Match reaction from U’s boss Garry Monk to League One draw at LNER Stadium

Garry Monk felt that his Cambridge United side ‘did enough in the game to get three points’ during this afternoon’s 1-1 draw at Lincoln City.

After falling behind early on to Freddie Draper’s strike, the U’s restored parity before the break courtesy of James Gibbons’ first goal for the club.

But while the U’s shaded the possession during the second half, a winning goal was not forthcoming – not even when Lincoln were reduced to 10 men four minutes from time when substitute Joe Gardner was handed his marching orders for a foul on James Brophy.

The result ultimately does little for Cambridge’s League One survival bid, but Monk had few complaints with his side’s performance – and he felt that they could have been helped by the referee, who opted against awarding penalties for challenges inside the Lincoln box on Jordan Cousins and Josh Stokes.

“Overall it’s a good performance. Coming here against these, not one person outside of that (Cambridge) changing room would have probably given us a chance today,” said Monk. “They’re probably expecting us to lose the game and after the start, probably even more so.

“But we showed character, belief and togetherness. We got back into the game and finished the (first) half really strong.

“In the second half we totally controlled it against a really good side. They won’t have been controlled here too many times this season as we did it.

“We had enough chances and we had two blatant penalties turned down – there’s not much more we can do. We’d love to be able to go and create 10 clear cut chances for ourselves but you’re not going to get that every single game.

“The performance was pleasing – of course it was. The attitude that we showed was brilliant and the spirit was like we showed last week (against Wycombe Wanderers). There’s no doubting any of that.

“We’ll just keep moving on and if we can keep getting points – we’re trying hardest to turn them into three points – with a bit of help we’d have that done (today) and we can help ourselves as well.

“There’s no disappointment. Maybe there’s a tinge of it because we did enough in the game to get three points, but it is what it is. You need some help sometimes as well from those decisions, but we’ll move on to the next game and try to show the same appetite.”

Bottom-of-the-table United, who are seven points from safety, head to league-leading Birmingham City on Tuesday (11 February).