Cambridge United’s win over Bristol Rovers provides early suggestion that improvements have been made from last season

Of table-topping Cambridge United’s three 2-0 victories this season, there is every chance that Saturday’s at the expense of Bristol Rovers will have been the source of the most satisfaction for head coach Mark Bonner.

The wins over Oxford United and Fleetwood Town were perhaps easier on the eye, performances in which the U’s looked electric at times on the counter-attack.

But at the weekend – in the club’s 2,000th outing in the Football League – Bonner’s charges were resolute, disciplined, patient and when it mattered, clinical.

Because make no mistake about it, this is game that for large parts of the previous campaign, United would have lost. Port Vale at home, Accrington Stanley at the Abbey and MK Dons away are just three examples of fixtures in 2022/23 that United should have drawn at the very least, only to contrive to lose by single-goal margins.

This time, though, they found a way to win and while it is far too early to be making any big conclusions or suggesting that any corners have been turned, encouragement should still be taken.

Joey Barton’s rather terse post-match interview summed it up better than any analysis. He was a frustrated manager, one that had come up against an opposition outfit who refused to budge.

Tactically it was a big upward tick for Bonner and his coaching staff. Playing out from deep through their centre-back pairing of Tristan Crama and Connor Taylor, Rovers wanted to disconnect United’s attack from its midfield and its midfield from the defence – and then exploit the gaps from there. Yet a well organised United did not take the bait, so much so that it took the visitors – despite having 62 per cent of the possession – until the 68th minute to register their first shot on target.

That was actually the game’s pivotal moment. Ironically, for all of Rovers’ sterile possession, it was a hopeful punt forward from Crama that caught out the United backline. Aaron Collins – a scorer of 16 Sky Bet League One goals last term – raced clear but there was no way past Jack Stevens, who not for the first time since joining United in the summer showed that one-on-one duels are his forte.

And then with proceedings poised, this time it was United – not their opposition – that made the crucial breakthrough 11 minutes from time. It was the type of finish that United fans have been robbed of seeing far too often since Fejiri Okenabirhie joined the club last summer, but hopefully now free from hamstring injuries, the striker picked out the bottom corner with aplomb.

Rovers ditched their initial gameplan after that and started to ask some serious questions of Stevens and his defence, all of which they answered relatively comfortably.

Nerves suitably shredded nevertheless, the majority of the 6,300-plus supporters inside the Abbey Stadium then got their moment to release the pressure valve when deep into six minutes of stoppage time George Thomas and Okenabirhie spearheaded a counter-attack that was eventually finished by another substitute, Sullay Kaikai.

And as the Abbey faithful filed out and into the much welcome August sunshine they learned that Kaikai’s goal had sent to the top of League One.

Now, not even the most loyal U will expect their side to retain their grip on the summit for too long, yet maybe – just maybe – this season they have a team that will not have them fretting over relegation. More displays of this ilk and that will surely be the case.

Attention now switches to Saturday (August 26) and a potentially different type of challenge on the road at Leyton Orient.

After an eight-year absence from the third tier of English football the O’s endured somewhat of a baptism of fire upon their return with defeats to Charlton Athletic, Portsmouth and Wycombe Wanderers.

But they are likely to buoyed by picking up their first point of the season last time out via a 0-0 draw at Blackpool.