Ian Evatt welcomed a step back in the right direction as Wanderers showed their mettle to claim a useful point on the road.
After successive defeats in league and cup, the Whites re-laid some solid foundations as they secured a third away draw of the season.
Wanderers had to play the last 20 minutes of a 0-0 draw at the Abbey Stadium with 10 men after the dismissal of Kyle Dempsey.
But they made sure Cambridge wouldn’t find a way through and after earlier chances to claim a win of their own, got their reward for a resilient performance which got their points’ tally moving again.
“I thought it looked more like us,” said Evatt. “We were more energetic, more aggressive, more intense.
“It was kind of the gameplan to grow into the game and not throw the game open too early.
“As of late we have conceded the first goal far too often, especially early on. So, we just wanted to be slightly more pragmatic, play forward quicker, but with a bit more quality.
“Here you always have to defend your box well and we did that really well today.
“In the second half I though we started to control the game. We had two real big chances and then a minute after the best of the game for Geth, Kyle’s off the pitch.
“It would have been easy for our lads to be rocked by that, but they weren’t. We stayed calm and aggressive in our approach.”
James Trafford made two key saves to secure the point just after half-time and in the final minute of stoppage time.
Between that, Wanderers had taken the fight to the home side with decent opportunities for Dion Charles and then Gethin Jones.
And Evatt saw plenty to build on with a trip to Fleetwood Town to come next Saturday, with Wanderers only outside the top six on goal difference.
“It’s a good point away from home,” added the Wanderers’ boss.
“It’s a difficult place to come and they’ve got a good home record. We probably would have gone on to win it if it weren’t for the red card.
“It was more like the performances from earlier in the season. There was that intensity from the players. They had the eye of the tiger, so to speak.
“There are still improvements to come but that looked a lot better than the last few weeks have done. It was more like us and we’ll go again next week.”