Cambridge boss Mark Bonner felt his side were well worthy of a point during their 1-1 draw against Wanderers.

The Whites seemed to be heading for a third successive win after Declan John opened the scoring during the second half.

But Sam Smith got the visitors back on level terms in stoppage time with a clever header from Jack Lankester’s free kick.

“We might have nicked it right at the end, but there was a great chance where Charles hit the post that might have put Bolton 2-0 up,” said Bonner. “We will take the result, absolutely.

“I thought in the last 10 minutes plus the injury time, we chased the game really well. We looked a good threat, had some good chances, got them on the ropes and looked like we were worthy of getting something from it.

“I was really happy with how we contained them in the first half and limited the number of chances they had.

“The period where the goal came, I thought we got a bit scruffy with the ball and the subs for Bolton made a really good impact. I thought Morley came on, gave good energy and ran the game and the tempo of it, and we struggled to contain them.

“But I thought our response to going behind was really good. We took a nice but of composure and control, ended up getting them deep and chased the game well.

“I do feel like it is a massive point for us, a well earned one for going the distance and finding the quality to find the goal.”

The Cambridge squad felt they should have had a penalty in the build-up to the equaliser after Luke Mbete brought down Fejiri Okenabirhie, but referee David Rock judged it was just outside the box.

“I haven’t seen it,” Bonner added. “The analyst said he didn’t think it was in the box from the angle he was at. It was a good bit of play from us.

“We had a good chance, a header, just before that and a couple of set-plays. I thought the subs made a brilliant impact.

“We ended up being so attacking with the players we had on the pitch, and it was a brilliant delivery and header for the goal.

“We are really pleased with that, we have become a good threat on set plays. We obviously hit the inside of the post in the first half from one of our corners.

“We know you are going to suffer large periods without the ball when you come here and you need to be fruitful with set plays, and we were pleased it was one of those that got us back in the game.”

It was Wanderers’ third-highest home gate at this level, with more than 24,000 fans in attendance at the UniBol.

“We have played so many big games now – Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland, Newcastle in the cup,” said the Cambridge boss.

“We have experienced a bit of that now and it is why we want to be in this level. We are going to fight to stay in it.

“We knew today would be a big crowd and a brilliant atmosphere on the back of a superb achievement of winning at Wembley. It is a club on the up.

“Ian has done incredibly. We took over at similar times in the League Two season and got promoted at similar times.

“He hasn’t lost many games since then! They have real momentum and we know that keeping clubs like this is really difficult.

“But we wanted to enjoy the atmosphere if we could and thrive on it. If we could keep it quiet and spoil the party a little bit, that was what we wanted to do and I thought we did that brilliantly in the first half.”