Cambridge United manager Mark Bonner praised the performance during Sky Bet’s League One defeat to Portsmouth

Cambridge United manager Mark Bonner was disappointed to see his side take nothing from yesterday’s 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Portsmouth.

The stats highlighted the U’s periods of dominance, but they failed to take any of their chances and ended up losing to Colby Bishop’s 65th-minute header at the back post.

It was a result that saw Sky Bet League One’s survival gap extended to five points, yet Bonner had no complaints about the way his players approached the match.

“We had some great periods of play. We had 17 tries for five, our xG is 1.8 to 0.6 and we had a penalty missed in the second half,” he said.

“Statistically, the probability of winning for us is 98 per cent. Put the ball in the net and that’s a winning performance for us. That’s really a good level.

“The days when you don’t score, it happens a lot for us. Those days, if you’re not a creative team and you don’t create chances, which it sometimes did, it’s the most frustrating.

“There are a lot of moments there for us going forward where we can win that game.

“They’ll be happy to get on the bus because they don’t deserve to win. Demi (Metov) had nothing to do all afternoon. They had one spell, they scored a goal and that’s a sign of our stature.

“It’s a penalty (for Cambridge in the second half), it’s a handball. You get that when you’re in a better position than we are.

Sam (Smith) scored an identical goal twice earlier in the season – one against Burton and one against Cheltenham from an identical ball from Liam O’Neill, he couldn’t quite connect with him. He had a good first-half performance, Liam Bennett and Michael Morrison managed to score runs Header in the first half – a lot of good stuff The one Sam hits, he connects beautifully and hits Shiloh (Tracy) in the face instead of going into the net.

“There are a lot of periods in that game where we’re at the top and we’re at a really good level, maybe more than the Fleetwood game. For us, losing both games 1-0 in the last two weeks is really tough for everyone to go through because we don’t deserve to be in the team. loser.

“I thought our levels were really good and we have to find another 12 if we can because that’s our only chance to turn those into the points and gains we need.”

Liam O’Neill and Steve Seddon have both stepped up their recovery from injuries with appearances off the bench in the second half, while Harvey Nipes is close to returning to action from an ankle injury.

However, despite being recalled from a loan spell at Chelmsford City, FA Cup youth star Kai Yern was not included in the squad for the tour.

Bonner added, “He’s ready to go but I don’t think I would have put him on the field today.”

“We always had that form where we were going to go and I think the guys that came into the tournament did really well.”