‘Sums it up!’: Cambridge boss fumes at Bristol Rovers goal in Cambridge defeat

Bristol Rovers inflicted a 15th league defeat on to Cambridge United - but was Sinclair offside?
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Cambridge United manager Mark Bonner has questioned Scott Sinclair's match-winning goal for Bristol Rovers. The U's boss was on the losing side as The Gas left the Abbey Stadium with all three points after a 2-1 win in Cambridgeshire.

Sam Smith opened the scoring for the hosts from Harvey Knibbs’ cross but Rovers got themselves back on level terms as Josh Coburn scored his ninth goal of his loan spell.

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Eight minutes later, Scott Sinclair scored his fourth goal of his second spell, as Joey Barton’s side secured victory over the struggling U’s. Coburn played a delightful pass to Luca Hoole down the right flank and the Wales Under-21 international picked out Sinclair with an exquisite cross that allowed the former Celtic winger to curl home.

Home boss Bonner believed that Sinclair’s goal perhaps shouldn’t have stood. He lamented his players for being sucked in as Rovers’ attack scored their 43rd league goal of the campaign.

“Their first attack of the game is a counter-attack off our restart and we’re not set up properly,” said Bonner to the Cambridge Independent in his assessment of the game.

“We’ve got to make a foul in the build up to that and Will makes a decent save but they score the rebound. They get back into a game where we’ve had fairly good control. “We were everything we wanted to be in the first 20 minutes and within a five-minute period the game turned around.

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“The second goal is offside, a good couple of yards offside and that sort of sums it up for us.

“We’re at home against a side that leaves two or three up the pitch constantly and tries to separate you from defence to midfield and we didn’t do our jobs properly – we get punished for it.”

Cambridge suffered their 15th defeat of their League One campaign and as a result, are based in 20th, and are just two points above the relegation zone. Rovers' victory saw them shoot up to eighth, and they are just three points off the play-offs but Barnsley have three games in hand.

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