Cambridge United 2-0 Forest Green Rovers: Hosts STAY in League One next season after comfortable win
Cambridge United 2-0 Forest Green Rovers: Hosts STAY in League One after other results go their way… with Harrison Dunk and Sam Smith scoring the first half goals
- Cambridge United jumped to safety in League One with a 2-0 win over the relegated side
- Goals for the hosts in the first half came from Harrison Dunk and Sam Smith
- Forest Green Rovers have long since been sentenced to League Two next season
Mark Bonner burst into tears after his beloved Cambridge side made one of the EFL’s great breakaways.
Cambridge had been embedded in the bottom four since mid-January and had shown little sign of clawing their way out of trouble until they took 13 points in a frenetic April schedule. It was their best monthly point return of the season.
Even then, United went into this last day drama with matters beyond their control. A win for one of their relegation rivals, Morecambe or MK Dons, would have made their 2-0 win over Forest Green Rovers academic.
“What a way to do it, the last game at the end of a really brutal season,” admitted Bonner, who is only 37. ‘It’s incredible, isn’t it? It is so good that we will be in this league again next year. It’s horrible when you can’t control it, but going from where we were a few weeks ago to where we are now is amazing.
“Look at all these people here. There were four sides of the stadium packed with Cambridge fans. I was a little emotional. The whole place refreshed their Twitter every ten seconds. Whether we were lucky enough to be in a season where you stay in the league with 46 points, I don’t care. It’s always a challenge for us at this level.’
Cambridge United manager Mark Bonner was emotional after their miraculous escape
Harrison Dunk celebrated with teammates after scoring the opening goal after 25 minutes
Sam Smith doubled Cambridge’s lead eight minutes later with a van Basten-esque volley
The home players were supported by a standing ovation from the U’s supporters as they left the field after their pre-match warm-up.
And the party atmosphere was soon in full swing after 25 minutes after Harrison Dunk’s header at the far post crept over the line and condemned the visitors, already relegated, to an unwelcome record of not keeping a clean sheet on the road in the competition. season.
Then came the Abbey Stadium roof as Sam Smith’s Marco van Basten-esque volley eight minutes from half time put the game to bed.
Forest Green Rovers boss Duncan Ferguson admitted a rebuild was needed after relegation
David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ popped out of the rusty tannoys as the players left the pitch at half-time, perhaps a little prematurely as MK Dons and Morecambe were just one goal away from swapping places with Cambridge.
The second half petered out with Bonner’s men in complete control. When the confirmation of Morecambe’s defeat at Exeter, extended by an agonizing 14 minutes of stoppage time, led to a benign pitch invasion for cheering Cambridge fans.
Bonner can now look forward to a third-level cracker next term. He added: “You grow as a club and you get stronger when times are tough. You are inhuman if you don’t doubt yourself when the going gets tough. But we’ve built resilience and have a strength here, and that has paid us back tremendously.”
Rovers finished their disastrous campaign 19 points from safety, with manager Duncan Ferguson admitting: ‘We have a rebuild coming up and we need to make sure we are competitive because there are already teams ahead of us.’