Reggie Lambe says the U’s must quickly move past the disappointment of last night’s Trophy exit and utilise the encouraging aspects of their display against Northampton Town back in Sky Bet League Two.
A last minute Cobbler’s equaliser cancelled out George Maris’ early goal before United’s Checkatrade Trophy campaign was ended via a penalty shoot-out. Lambe feels though it’s the largely well-measured and controlled performance that United must take heart from as they strive towards improving their fortunes in League Two.
He explained “It was unfortunate we couldn’t make it through, but we have taken a lot of positives tonight and we are all looking forward to the next game on Saturday.
“We needed to come out and show we are a good team. We have done that at stages for a lot of the season, but tonight we knew it was a one off game and we wanted to showcase ourselves to get to the next round.
“It was disappointing to concede so late on in the match, after we had done so well as a team for most of the game to defend our box.
“We obviously had the big goalmouth scramble before the goal that was then cleared, I’m pretty with it being so late in the game, everybody would have felt confident that our luck had turned and we’d seen out the game. It was a bit disappointing that they (Northampton) came straight back and scored.”
Lambe continued: “In the dressing room, Mark (Bonner) was keeping everybody’s heads up and making sure none of our heads drop because it’s an important game at Tranmere and we have to look forward towards that now.
“We have the chance to solely focus on our League position, and can take encouragement from the way we played for most of the game tonight.”
Following a turbulent weekend Lambe says he was pleased the players were able to deliver on a number of tweaks made by interim Head Coach Mark Bonner, particularly defensively, and feels the U’s must carry that forward into Saturday’s trip to Tranmere Rovers.
He said: “Any person that comes in, will look to bring their own style and make their own changes to what they feel is right. Mark has looked to do that in training since the weekend, I don’t think he’s over-stepping on anything that Joe (Dunne) has left.
“He’s carried forward a few principles from Joe and then added a few principles of his own, and any manager or interim manager will look to bring in their own style. He’s very much respected and we want to do a job for him in the games under him.
“I think you saw that tonight, we had a bit more defensive structure from us for most of the game and we were more solid. You’ll see that again going into Saturday.”