Cambridge boss Garry Monk was scathing of referee Will Finnie’s decision to award Wycombe a late penalty as the two sides recorded a 1-1 League One draw on Tuesday night.

Finnie penalised substitute Lyle Taylor seven minutes from time, allowing Luke Leahy to equalise and make Cambridge’s bid to avoid relegation go down to the final day.

A victory would have kept the U’s up and they led through Gassan Ahadme, despite illness and injury leading to Monk having only one fit centre-back available to him.

“It’s not in a million years a penalty,” Monk said afterwards.

“It’s got nothing to do with the players. It was taken out of our hands by a decision from an official that I think’s extremely poor. I’m not surprised that decision was given either, from the performance of the referee today.

“It is what it is, we’ve got to deal with it and the ramifications of it. We’re not in a place that we should have been and deserved to be tonight, where we were safe.

“In the second half, what more can you ask? We had some good chances tonight, we scored our goal. The bitter bit is not coming off with three points. We deserve to be in the situation where the job is done tonight.

“I’m really proud of them. They deserved to walk off this pitch tonight in front of our fans with the job done. We can feel deflated tonight but when we wake up tomorrow, we know what the job is.

“If we continue to show the amount of effort in what we’re doing then on Saturday we’ll get what we deserve, or what we did deserve tonight.”

Wycombe boss Matt Bloomfield was delighted to see his side make it 10 points from their last four away matches.

“We’ve played Shrewsbury, Port Vale – less so Carlisle because they were already relegated – and Cambridge. Teams that wanted points, needed points.

“The one thing I wanted to come away from every game is not being able to pick which team needed the points and which team didn’t.

“I wanted us to play with that intensity, that need to keep improving, the need to keep moving forward. It’s how we feel about ourselves. The boys are disappointed, they wanted to win tonight and I think they way we played showed that.

“You can’t win every game, we have to be very respectful of the way Cambridge played and performed but I think we did enough to win the game.

“First half we were excellent, it’s as dominant as we’ve been. The only slight disappointment was that we weren’t ahead. To show the character to go and get a penalty and come back, I thought we were very good.”

Neil Harris described Lyle Taylor’s first Cambridge appearance as good a debut as he had seen after his side’s 2-1 win against Fleetwood.

Taylor enjoyed a memorable first outing after coming off the bench against Fleetwood, opening the scoring and then assisting Sullay Kaikai’s added-time winner.

The win lifts Harris’ side to seven points above the League One relegation zone, while Fleetwood remain bottom and eight points from safety.

“If you look at debuts, that was as good a debut as I’ve seen,” Harris said.

“Ultimately the game changed when Lyle came on, but then when Brandon Njoku came on as well it changed the impetus of the game.

“That’s the importance of the transfer window. Getting Lyle done before training and midday yesterday was a challenge.

“The temptation to start him was there, naturally. It had been an up and down week for him, he hadn’t had a lot of time on the grass.

“He knows playing for me he’ll get chances to score. He’s been desperate to come, I’ve been desperate to get him in. I’m delighted to have him because his qualities suit the way I want to play.

“What was lacked in the first half at times was that composure, and moment of quality as well.

“Sometimes, especially at this stage in the season, it’s just about three points. I just praise the players’ character and resilience.

“When we conceded and it went back to 1-1 there was no feeling sorry for yourself. The crowd didn’t melt, we didn’t melt as a group. We were on the front foot and probably should have scored one or two before we did.”

Charlie Adam knows his Fleetwood side must start winning games if they are to stand any chance of avoiding the drop to League Two.

“In large spells we did well for an away performance,” Adam said.

“Again, big moments change games. In the 92nd minute we lose a goal and its disappointment, but again there are good signs at times of what we’ve been working on all week.

“We bounced back from that goal that we conceded but again late goals we’ve conceded have cost us this year and we’ll need to address that in the week.

“You’re hoping that your team can go on and try and win the game. If not we want to draw the game, take a point and we go to next week. We’re disappointed to lose the game and we’ll focus on what we can do better as a group, we’ll readdress it and go against Portsmouth next week.

“I think the confidence is in the team, there’s a good spirit in there. I’ve had two away games, when the lads travelled they’re connected, they’re together. That’s important and that’s what will get us results.”

Lyle Taylor scored on his Cambridge debut and Sully Kaikai struck a stoppage-time winner as the U’s beat League One’s bottom side Fleetwood 2-1.

Taylor signed for the club on Friday and found the net 14 minutes after coming off the bench.

Promise Omochere equalised for Fleetwood but Cambridge were not to be denied as Taylor teed-up Kaikai in the first minute of added time.

All of the game’s big chances happened in the closing 20 minutes as a number of substitutes made their mark.

Brandon Njoku, seconds after coming on, produced great work before the ball fell to Taylor to open the scoring with 19 minutes left.

Cambridge were pegged back six minutes later when Jayden Stockley, a one-time U’s loanee, stood a cross up for Omochere to nod home at the back post, only two minutes after he himself had come off the bench.

The home side should have been back ahead seconds after the restart when Taylor pulled the ball back for Jack Lankester, who somehow missed the target from six yards.

Ryan Bennett headed Kaikai’s corner on to a post in the final seconds, before in added time Taylor’s ball across the box was fired into roof of the net by Kaikai for Cambridge’s winner.