Cambridge manager Mark Bonner said Saturday’s 1-0 League One victory over Ipswich was a “massive” win for his team.

The result severely dented Ipswich’s bid to progress towards a top-six place following an own goal by Dominic Thompson and it was Town’s first defeat in 12 games, keeping them six points off a play off spot.

The only goal of the game came in the 56th minute following a free-kick by Sam Smith. Paul Digby flicked the ball towards goal and Joe Ironside’s challenge with Thompson resulted in the ball ending up in the Ipswich goal.

Bonner said: “It was a massive win for us, no doubt.

“I think through this season we have found out how difficult games away against the top teams can be and let’s not make any mistake, they (Ipswich) are one.

“They are a brilliant side who are in incredible form, don’t concede many goals or chances, have so much movement in the team, so much rotation and it’s really hard to contain them.

“We really wanted to get after them higher up the pitch but we had to accept we couldn’t and ended up defending in a really stubborn way.

“To limit them to the number of clear-cut chances that we did takes an incredible amount of discipline and work ethic and I thought the players took that on incredibly well.

“The first goal is always going to be key for us getting ahead and we have to manage the game a little bit and be stubborn.”

Town boss Keiran McKenna was philosophical about the defeat, saying he was “disappointed” with his side’s display as they registered their first home loss under him.

McKenna said: “I thought it was our worst performance for quite a while.

“I thought – especially in the first half – our performance wasn’t at the levels that we expect and I thought they dominated on the first and second balls the whole game.

“They were stronger than us on set-plays in both boxes and we didn’t get our positioning quite right.

“We didn’t get ourselves the right options on the ball and I didn’t think we had enough aggression and possession to really threaten their goal.”

Ipswich thought they rescued a point at the death when the ball ended up in the Cambridge net following a goalmouth melee, but it was ruled offside.

McKenna added: “We improved a bit in the second half but you can’t give away goals on set-plays.

“It’s definitely a step back in terms of our performance and result, the first game that we have lost for a while and we need to learn from it.

“It’s very disappointing at the moment and we need to use this as a big learning block and a big motivation and we need to move forward.”