Cambridge United head coach Mark Bonner reflects on defeat to Scunthorpe United

Head coach Mark Bonner conceded his Cambridge United side were punished for not making better decisions in the final third of the pitch during tonight's 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Scunthorpe United.

The U's dominated large parts of the contest at The Abbey, where they had 17 shots – five on target – but were unable to get the better of Mark Howard in the visitors' goal.

In contrast, Scunthorpe scored with the only shot on target (two in total) with just 11 minutes remaining.

Bonner, who has seen his side drop to second in the League Two table, said: "The disappointment is the result, not the performance. We absolutely dominated the game for large periods in terms of possession, creation of chances, entries into the final third – Callum (Burton, goalkeeper) has had nothing to do second half.

"We've given them a chance – we think it's a foul on Greg (Taylor) in the build up – but they've taken that moment they had.

"We've had so many moments where a little bit of a better decision or a bit more ruthless edge in the final part (of the pitch) would have rewarded us with something.

"We've dominated the possession, which is what we wanted to do, but not been able to find enough moments of quality to really make it count for us.

"I don't think you can fault much about the performance. You can bemoan a little bit of lack of quality of decision making in the final third, but on another night we might win that 3-0."

The games continue to come thick and fast for Bonner's men, who will entertain Walsall on Saturday (3pm).

And the boss is keen to see Cambridge channel their frustration from this evening's loss in the right manner.

"We've always responded really well all season. The games are really close – we've seen that since the turn of the year. So many games have just one goal in them," he added.

"There's a real frustration tonight because not in a million years should we lose that football match – the stats say it and the performance says it.

"Any frustration that we've got we need to put it into a performance on Saturday. We know there won't be many days where we create that many chances and not score.

"There's no drama in that respect. We've just got to find that moment of quality we need if we are unable to make it comfortable."