Cambridge United 4-1 Shrewsbury Town: Garry Monk praises attacking play after goals from Shayne Lavery, Dan Nlundulu and Elias Kachunga earns crucial League One victory at the Abbey Stadium
Head coach Garry Monk has praised his Cambridge United players for the ‘clinical’ and ‘ruthless’ display that they produced to win this afternoon’s crucial League One clash against Shrewsbury Town 4-1.
The U’s headed into today’s contest on the back of a 3-0 defeat at Reading on Tuesday – a result that left them five points from safety and just two above their second-from-bottom visitors.
But they turned on the style at the Cledara Abbey Stadium with a pair of first-half Shayne Lavery goals being followed after the restart by contributions from Dan Nlundulu and Elias Kachunga. John Marquis pulled a goal back from the penalty spot for Shrewsbury with 20 minutes remaining, but it proved to be nothing more than a consolation.
And Monk was particularly delighted with the attacking play as his side scored four times – the same number of goals they had managed in their previous six league outings. And crucially it has cut the gap to Crawley Town in 20th to just three points.
Monk said: “We’re trying to break it down into smaller parts, the next game but also the week.
“We had a setback on Tuesday. It was important, not just for where we are in the league and the opposition we’re playing against, but it was important to respond. So (it’s) a really important win for us.
“We’ve talked about having the opportunities and not being clinical or ruthless with them. We were today. That was the difference, scoring good goals at the right times.
“We took our opportunities. In recent games that’s been a bit of an Achilles’ heel for us because we’ve had more than enough opportunities. Today we took them, then we had control of the game.
“We defended well enough and could have had a few more on the break.
“Scoring straight away lifts the crowd on a day like this, they got straight into it. That gave us a boost and that platform to kick on. The most important bit was winning and responding, because we need a lot more wins.”
The U’s are back in action on Tuesday away at lower-league Cheltenham Town in the EFL Trophy.