Joe Dunne unhappy with Cambridge’s performance in Newport defeat

Posted Sunday, April 29, 2018 by PA

Joe Dunne will not let his Cambridge players put their feet up after their 2-1 defeat at Newport.

The hosts piled on the pressure from the start and got their reward after 26 minutes when Mickey Demetriou poked them in front.

Substitute Aaron Collins made an instant impact when he surged down the wing and crossed for Frank Nouble, who volleyed the ball in at the back post for his 10th goal of the season after 59 minutes.

Cambridge offered some resistance when Billy Waters teed up George Maris to fire into the bottom corner with nine minutes remaining, but it was too little, too late.

“We were a shadow of the team we have been in the past weeks,” said U’s manager Dunne.

“They were first to everything, we only turned up in the last 10 minutes. We don’t want to be performing like that in front of our own fans next week.

“I won’t accept that type of performance, we’ll have to see if we give them a day off this week – probably not.

“It’s the end of the season and they had more spirit and fight about them and more quality. It’s very disappointing we’re ending our last away game with a performance like that – I won’t accept it, no chance.

“We need to look at our preparation heading into these away games, but we weren’t the same team we have been.

“I’m not going to make excuses when we were second to everything, they scored from a throw-in which we had been talking about.”

Newport are now only three points away from their record tally in League Two ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Chesterfield and manager Mike Flynn wants them to finish on a high.

He said: “I wanted to give the fans a home win at the end of the season so they can go home happy. They have been fantastic this season and that win was for them.

“We should have scored more, we have to cut out the silly mistakes, I’ve already talked to Josh Sheehan about tracking back with his runners.

“We need to be more clinical at the other end as well because we should have scored more.

“That points total is an incentive but I don’t know what kind of side we’ll have out Tuesday, but we’ll give it the best go we can. We’re on a good run of form, the boys have been fantastic.

“We want to improve everywhere, it won’t be easy with the finances but we have to do what we can. At times we’ve over-achieved this season so we need to do that again next season.”