Dunne hails bench strength as Cambridge pull out another win

Posted Sunday, November 04, 2018 by PA

Joe Dunne linked his Cambridge squad’s growing depth to their recent upturn in form.

Paul Lewis stooped to head the winning goal six minutes from time to give Cambridge a 1-0 win and extend their unbeaten run to four games.

It was their second success in a row by that score, with the goal coming from a Us substitute on each occasion.

“It’s a big win today, don’t underestimate the importance of that win,” Dunne commented afterwards.

“Again it was not a very attractive game, although saying that we had two or three chances in the first half that possibly we could have scored.

“No game’s easy in this league; we’ve won another difficult game against a team around us, similar to last week, and they’re big games. They’re the important games that you’ve got to get something from.

“We made positive changes to go on and win it, we were on the front foot, left ourselves open once or twice for a couple of breaks.

“I’ve been saying to this team all along you’re only as strong as your bench. We made the changes today and we got another win from the bench.

“Grimsby will feel aggrieved, as well they might, but great credit to my players. We’re not a poor team. We deserve a little respect and maybe the last three wins will make one or two people respect us a little bit more, and that’s why I’m very pleased for the team.”

Grimsby boss Michael Jolley felt fine lines are defining his side’s results.

“I felt it was a relatively even game. Either side could have won it,” Jolley reflected.

“It was a very tight affair. I think we started better, they probably had the better of the second part of the first half and came more into the game, and in the second half it was more about them with the ball and us counter-attacking.

“We’re crushingly disappointed because we put a lot in to the game and I think we deserved to get at least a point from it, but these small margins are going against us at the moment and we’ve got to try and make them go in our favour.”

On a possible foul in the build-up to the goal, he commented: “I went over and spoke to the referee; I said I thought he had a really poor game. All the marginal decisions went in Cambridge’s favour.

“I’ve had about 30 games as a manager and it’s the first time I’ve really felt a referee affected a game and that was really frustrating for us.”