Cambridge United drop to second in the League Two standings after home defeat to Scunthorpe United

Cambridge United were displaced from the League Two summit on Tuesday evening after a frustrating 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Scunthorpe United.

The hosting U’s dominated large parts of the encounter, but a combination of wayward decision making in the final third and Mark Howard between the posts for the away side left Mark Bonner’s men vexed.

And to rub salt into the wound, visiting Iron completed a real smash and grab victory in the 79th minute – sealing a result that has seen Cambridge drop to second, a point behind last week’s conquerors Cheltenham Town having played two games more.

Cambridge signalled their intent inside the opening 60 seconds when leading marksman Paul Mullin lashed his half volley off target from outside the box.

They went on to carve out the half’s best chance with 14 minutes on the clock. Howard showed fine reflexes in the Scunthorpe goal, but Shilow Tracey may well have felt he should have done better from eight yards out.

Howard was called into action again moments later, this time at his near post as Harrison Dunk threatened to squeeze the ball in, while Kyle Knoyle’s cross-cum-shot shot just evaded an onrushing Joe Ironside as the first half rather petered out.

The second half mirrored the first in many ways with United spending large periods camped inside the visitors’ territory.

Jack Iredale saw his low free-kick in the 58th minute tipped to safety by Howard, who was then well positioned to catch Ironside’s header a couple of minutes of later.

Mullin, with 22 league goals to his name, had largely been well marshalled by Scunthorpe’s robust centre-back pairing of Harrison McGahey and Jacob Bedeau up until this point, but with 68 minutes played he got the space he had been craving.

However, after advancing into the right hand side of the box the forward dragged his effort wide of the target.

It was starting to feel like one of those night for the U’s, particularly when there was nobody on hand to apply the finishing touch to Tracey’s driven cross from the right.

And that sense of exasperation only intensified 11 minutes from time when Scunthorpe broke the deadlock with their first meaningful attack of the second half.

Alfie Beestin was afforded the space to break into the Cambridge box and he made the most of it with a cool finish into the bottom left hand corner.

Cambridge looked a little shell shocked thereafter, and it allowed Scunthorpe to end their sequence of back-to-back defeats in relatively comfortable fashion.

Cambridge will aim to get back on track on Saturday when they entertain Walsall (3pm), followed by a trip to Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday (7.45pm).

Cambridge: Burton, Dunk, Drysdale, Taylor, Knoyle, Iredale (Davies 75'), O'Neil (Boateng 75'), May, Tracey, Ironside, Mullin