U’s Brown pivotal in derby day victory

CAMBRIDGE boss Colin Calderwood spoke highly of his side’s response to their previous loss after victory over Stevenage.

The U’s bounced back from their 6-0 New Year’s Day hammering at MK Dons to record a morale-boosting win.

David Amoo’s second goal of the season set them on their way before Jevani Brown secured all three points.

With Macclesfield conceding in injury time to lose to Swindon, Cambridge lifted themselves to five points above the relegation zone going into their huge game at Notts County next weekend.

“The result obviously looks like a big reaction from New Year’s Day,” Calderwood said.

“The quality of the opening 20 minutes set the tone and maybe settled the crowd a little bit but it certainly settled ourselves down.

“We’ve scored two and we’ve managed the second half, and there were moments where we might have increased the score.

“Whatever happened in the previous game, that was a good level of performance.

“You’ve got to give them a lot of credit for that level and obviously the result.”

Stevenage boss Dino Maamria bemoaned the inconsistency of his team which sees them sitting in mid-table in League Two.

“In a big derby game you can’t perform like that and we did,” he said.

“It’s been typical really, the first half of every game we play away from home we play really poorly.

“You can’t go away and give two goals away first half and give yourself a mountain to climb.

“I thought Cambridge were very, very good. They fought for their lives, they showed a lot of desire to win the game.”

When the breakthrough came 10 minutes before half time it was through Amoo. Brown played him in through the middle and Amoo rounded Paul Farman before firing past the defender on the line.

Brown doubled the lead in first half stoppage time, firing precisely into the bottom corner from the edge of the box after Jake Carroll’s free-kick was cleared by Michael Timlin.

Stevenage threw caution to the wind after the break, but Danny Newton’s effort from distance was the closest they came to pulling a goal back.