Mark Bonner set his sights on Cambridge securing automatic promotion from League Two in their next fixture after Saturday’s narrow 1-0 defeat to Stevenage.

A win would have sealed Cambridge’s place in League One but the U’s were beaten 1-0 courtesy of a Luke Norris goal after 63 minutes which prevented Bonner’s side from confirming promotion with two games of the season to play.

They are still five points clear of Morecambe and Tranmere – in fourth and fifth – so two points would guarantee a top-three finish.

“I think the performance level is a little bit frustrating because it’s not the level that we’ve hit in the last couple of weeks, and sometimes that can happen when you’ve had the two massive away days, put everything into it that you have – we just looked flat,” said Bonner.

“We didn’t play at a good level, the best level we can. We had moments, we certainly had a really good spell in the first half, but over the course of 90 minutes we haven’t created enough on their goal.

“They haven’t created loads on ours but they’ve obviously got the goal and obviously their defensive record’s outstanding.

“I think the pressure’s been bigger in the last few weeks, being honest, because we’ve had to go into games against top, top teams and get results and we’ve got quite a few in that spell.

“What that’s done is given us the right to have a shot at it today, without the pressure of knowing the consequences of a bad result.

“We know that we’ve earned the right to have a bad day.

“It sounds rubbish but that’s kind of where we are, we’ve got that little cushion. Sometimes it’s hard to continually put yourself under that pressure, where we’ve had to in the last six weeks.

“Everyone in the world thinks it’s done and today’s party time. Unfortunately football just doesn’t work like that. We’re not there yet, we’ve still got two games to do it in.

“We’ve got a week ahead now to go into the Harrogate game. Before today we needed three points, we probably now need one.”

Stevenage boss Alex Revell felt that his side had produced their best performance under his tenure.

“In terms of the whole occasion, I would probably say so,” he said.

“We knew they would want to come out, we knew the game was big, so we knew we had to try and dominate.

“Apart from a few little bits where they were maybe just a couple of mistakes, for 90 minutes I thought we were excellent.

“We stuck to the way we play, when we got through on goal we should have been out of sight in the first half. We didn’t do that, and then second half we came out not as good but took a chance and then defended brilliantly.

“All in all I think it was a really top performance from us.”

Revell began his playing career at Cambridge and spoke highly of their season and his opposite number Bonner.

“Cambridge is the first result I look at, I was here for a very long time. They’ll go up, 100 per cent, they’ve been outstanding all season, they’ve shown how clubs should be run, how to play in this league.

“I’m sure that they’ll be celebrating in the next couple of weeks.”