Cambridge United head coach Mark Bonner confident players have moved on from Peterborough United thrashing ahead of Northampton Town trip

Head coach Mark Bonner is not expecting any type of hangover when his Cambridge United side head to Northampton Town this afternoon.

The trip to the Sixfields Stadium will be Cambridge’s first outing since they were thrashed 5-0 by rivals Peterborough United on November 11.

However, Bonner is confident that the subsequent two-week break has allowed his players to put the London Road humiliation firmly behind them, leaving them free to focus on picking up what would be just a second Sky Bet League One away victory of the campaign.

“It (Peterborough defeat) seems a long time ago now. It’s been good, I think the break came at a really good time. We felt going into that game that the break was going to be coming at a good time and it’s enabled us to take some time away, which has been useful,” he said.

“It’s the first time since the beginning of July that anyone has been able to have consecutive days off, which is a big thing and hopefully that freshens everyone help.

“Training has been excellent this week, really focused and exactly what you would expect. It’s up to us to now go and deliver a really good performance at Northampton.

“You just crack on. You get hardened to it in this game and that isn’t to sound dismissive of a bad result and bad performance.

“If it’s a competition of who it hurts most – and it isn’t – but you won’t beat me, it’s as simple as that. But we’re professionals and we get on with it. You take a few hits along the way and that’s the way it is.

“We’ve had two defeats this season by big scorelines – Barnsley and Peterborough. In the main defensively we’ve been really resolute, but the simple truth is when you play the big teams in this league, we’re not as good as them at the moment and that can happen. It’s happened over the last couple of years and until we get to that level it will continue happening.

“What’s going on here (at the new training ground) is a really good opportunity for us to continue building. But we’re miles behind some of the clubs at the moment.

“You can be as emotional as you want about it being the local rival, which I obviously am on the one side. But on the other side we’re a long way behind them in terms of infrastructure, transfer fees, recruitment of squad and the level they’ve been playing at for years.

“We’re not there yet, but it doesn’t mean we can’t be competitive against them on the day. We beat them last year, we were excellent on the day and we were very close in the away game last year. We had a horrible day this time around – that can happen.

“You step back from it, two weeks without a game has been great for us and you just go ‘right, what’s next?’ A third of the season is gone and if we’re to get a positive result from the next game we’re ahead of where we were last year.

“It isn’t all too bad, we’re in a fairly decent position. It’s good you have people like me taking the team that don’t get too carried away by the good bits and the bad bits because in the end we’ve got to make sure that we stay really level and keep going.

“As I said on the day you don’t want it to happen against your rivals but it did. The only thing you can do is control what happens next and if we continue living in that game, which we haven’t been in the last two weeks –we’ve focused on what’s next. You have to put things to bed really quickly in this industry.”

This weekend’s opponents head into the encounter having snapped a five-match sequence without a league victory when they defeated Burton Albion 2-0 last time out.

Bonner added: “They had a difficult period but then they had a good result against Burton.

“This will be a tough one – it’s never easy to go there. We played them in cup competitions recently.

“I think it will be a good atmosphere and we’ll have a brilliant following there. It’s a game we want to go and deliver a really good performance in.”

Centre-back Zeno Ibsen Rossi will miss the encounter because of a calf injury, although he is only expected to be absent for the next week or so. Jordan Cousins and Elias Kachunga are both fit an available after recent fitness concerns, while Sullay Kaikai is also set to return after his international commitments with Sierra Leone.