Neil Harris called for his Cambridge players to show better composure following a disappointing loss to Stevenage.
The U’s had secured successive wins since Harris returned to the club as head coach but were poor in Tuesday night’s defeat to Stevenage, who won the game through Jamie Reid on 64 minutes.
Harris’ side are seven points from safety, only one better than when Harris was re-appointed despite those two victories.
“I’m obviously disappointed to come off with a defeat,” said Harris. “It’s summed up in 60 seconds. We get into the final third with a really good move, we’ve got a two v one situation and we end up putting the ball in the stands – 60 seconds later the ball’s in our net.
“They’re the moments that can’t happen in football. We have to make better decisions in the final third. We have to control those moments better and then we have to defend our goal better. That defines the game.
“We lacked quality. We lacked options off the bench. I really praised the players coming off the bench in the previous two games, tonight I didn’t see that quality coming off the bench.
“I can ask the players for a little bit better decision-making, a bit more bravery on the football but that’s about it at the moment.
“I can’t praise them highly enough for the effort and attitude again tonight and I’ve really enjoyed working with them. Tonight we just fell short with a little bit of quality.
“I never settle for defeat, especially here at the Abbey. However, we have got six points in three games which is a fantastic return for the group.”
Alex Revell felt the victory repaid Stevenage’s fans after a defeat to the U’s when the sides met earlier in the season.
“We changed it a little bit because we knew it was going to be a battle, the physical strength they have in the team,” said Revell. “We had to make sure we stood up to that.
“They’ve had two really great wins and they’re fighting for their lives. We had to come here and put on a good performance. Tonight in term of the togetherness, the spirit, the connection between the group, I thought was fantastic.
“For the fans it was a special night tonight because the fans were incredible, they led us on from minute one. That’s for them because we disappointed them in the first game, so we had a challenge today to make sure that we came here and won.
“We stood up to their game. Against Stockport they were 2-0 up. We had to make sure we were in the game, in the second half we knew it would potentially open up.”
