Mark Bonner wants Cambridge United to right wrongs of unjust away results in League One in trip to Charlton Athletic
Mark Bonner has challenged Cambridge United to right wrongs of some unjust results on the road when they travel to Charlton Athletic in League One on Saturday (August 20).
The U’s suffered a 4-1 defeat at Portsmouth in midweek, having previously been beaten 1-0 by a stoppage time goal at Oxford United on their travels.
In both games, the United head coach has been pleased with large parts of their performances.
“It’s just confirmed that we’re a good side because I think we’ve gone really competitive against two teams that should be, or expect to be up, certainly up the top end of the table,” said Bonner.
“I think we’ve played really well for the large majority of both games, so that’s encouraging.
“I actually think to come out of the last two away games that we’ve had with no points is a little bit unjust really because I thought the performances were excellent.
“When you look at Tuesday night, for a large part of the game we were very competitive. It took until injury time of the first half for them to have a shot - it was almost the perfect first half.
“In the opening spell of the second half, we should have a penalty on Harvey Knibbs which if it is at the other end towards the Portsmouth fans it definitely gets given for them; you just don’t get those ones.
“Other than that, I thought the performance was very good until the moments when the game turned. It looks like an ugly finish and a really confident finish from them, which it was because of how the game went, but it certainly wasn’t heading that way.
“If you left that game in the 60th minute, you’d have never have guessed it would end like that.”
United suffered a 2-0 defeat at The Valley last season, but they produced a good display without being able to convert any of the chances that they created.
The match on Saturday continues a tricky run for the U's, but Bonner pointed to the importance of their 2-1 comeback victory over Exeter City at the Abbey last Saturday.
“We know when we went to Charlton last year that we played really well and didn’t get the result we wanted,” said Bonner.
“They are a completely different team now, a new manager and a different style in everything.
“We’ve got a couple of days to try to ready ourselves and prepare for that, but we certainly went into the week knowing how important these two away games were and how difficult they would be, and therefore how important the Exeter win really was.
“As I’ve said a few times, when you play against a team [Exeter] that have won so many games it’s difficult. You can see on Tuesday night, Exeter responded by beating Wycombe at home so it’s a heck of a result on Saturday.
“There were only three teams in the 92 that managed to come from behind in the sweltering heat last weekend, and we were one of them.
“We know how important a result that was for us. It set us up well for Tuesday; that didn’t land in the end the way we wanted it to but we’ve got a chance to go and prepare ourselves now for a team that have started really well.”
Charlton have undergone a significant transformation under new manager Ben Garner this season.
It has reaped its rewards in a difficult start to the campaign with victory over Derby County, a 5-1 win over 10-man Plymouth Argyle, a Carabao Cup penalty success over Championship QPR and a 2-2 draw with Accrington Stanley.
Their only loss has been a 1-0 defeat Sheffield Wednesday.
“From the very beginning of the season, I think you can tell he has got a way of playing that he had well developed at Swindon last season,” Bonner said about opposite number Garner.
“They have come in and hit the ground running with that new style at Charlton. Playing the way in which they play, I think they’ve got some really good options in their squad and their team as well, and you can see the strength in depth that they’ve got.
“Despite it being against 10 men for an hour on Tuesday night, when Plymouth had one sent off, they were dominant and passing the ball very well, looking a very attacking threat.
“We know that will be a tough game for us, but I think as well we know we can go into it thinking we can go and compete because of what we’ve done so far.
“I think it will give us a really good challenge and one that we’ve got a couple of days to try to ready the players for and we can make changes to the team which is helpful with where we are at the moment, and see if we can go and deliver a performance on a par with the others.”
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