Garry Monk thrilled as 10-man Cambridge hold Bolton

Garry Monk was delighted with his 10-man Cambridge side’s ability to earn a 1-1 draw against Bolton.

The game looked set to be decided by Jubril Okedina’s red card four minutes into the second half and an Aaron Collins goal 10 minutes later, only for a rousing finale that saw Cambridge to grab a point a minute from time through Sullay Kaikai’s fine header.

After collecting one point from their opening nine league games Cambridge have since lost only once in seven League One outings.

“Out of all the games this season that’s probably the proudest I’ve been,” said Monk afterwards.

“We didn’t give up, we kept going. We got our deserved rewards today. We deserved that goal, 100 per cent.

“With 10 men, two things can happen. Either you feel sorry for yourselves or it galvanises you. I think it galvanised us, galvanised the crowd.

“It’s just disappointing that the goal (conceded) came from ourselves, our own mistake where we could have cleared the ball earlier and obviously got punished for it. Even in that moment it didn’t deter us.

“We can talk about tactics all you want but there’s that innate feeling from a crowd; when you see a group of lads giving everything they’ve got then they’ll go with you. That definitely happened tonight. That combination together got us across the line, got that goal back.

“If anything, towards the end if anyone was going to score a winner it looked like us. It was an exceptional effort from everyone.”

Ian Evatt rued his Bolton side’s inability to see the game out after Kaikai’s equaliser cost them two points. They missed the chance to climb into the play-offs, sitting outside on goal difference.

“It’s two points dropped, there’s no two ways about that,” said Evatt.

“It was always going to be a difficult game and we’d done the hard yards to get ahead. The sending off obviously helps, and then the only way that they’re going to score is a set play.

“We concede far too many set plays, we’re giving sloppy fouls away, we’re not dealing with balls that we should do the simple things and manage the game out. We’re trying to take unnecessary risks or dribble or take too many touches, which leads to long throws. I’m disappointed not to see the game out.

“These grounds are never easy to come to, it’s really tough and challenging. We had the game in the palm of our hands and, just through our lack of game management, we have gifted them a way back in to get a draw.

“When they score so late you can’t recover. We didn’t have the time to recover and get ahead again.”