Cambridge City manager Jamie Cureton calls for more ‘quality’ in attack after 0-0 draw with Wroxham

Cambridge City passed up the chance to make up more significant ground on the Isthmian League North Division play-offs yesterday afternoon with a 0-0 draw at home against relegation-threatened Wroxham.

With Tilbury suffering a 1-0 defeat at home to Concord Rangers, a victory would have moved the Lilywhites to within three points of the top five.

However, while their unbeaten run of league form stretched to nine matches, they were unable to make the breakthrough in front of another crowd in excess of 600 spectators at the FWD-IP Community Stadium in Sawston.

And manager Jamie Cureton is hoping that the stalemate will serve as a wake-up call for his players –particularly those in the attacking third of the pitch.

“We were poor. We defended ok but probably allowed too many opportunities at our goal and Philpsy (James Philp, goalkeeper) has pulled off two one-on-ones,” he said.

“But for us again, the top end of the pitch – the quality and the decision making (wasn’t good enough). Millsy (Ramiah Mills) has had two one-on-ones, he’s hit the ‘keeper with one and dragged one wide – we have to be scoring those chances.

“If Millsy scores the first one early on I think the game changes, but we miss and we don’t create loads more because of our lack of quality, crossing and the final ball. All of that was really, really frustrating for me today.

“We spoke about it last week – as much as we won (against Haringey Borough) with with two moments of quality, we had opportunities for a lot more and again our decision making was poor. We’ve carried that on and I’ve let them know our standards have to be high all of the time.

“Our focus has to be high, we can’t just turn up and think that someone in the team is going to produce a moment of magic. We have to be better when we’re in the final third of the pitch and our quality has to be so much higher.

“If we do want to keep challenging and pushing up the league, we have to be better than we have been today. In our run that we’ve been on that’s as poor as we’ve been.

“We have to be careful that we don’t get carried away and think because we’re winning the performances are always good because they’re not. Sometimes the win masks over the performance and I’ve said that throughout the run we’ve been on.

“Today hopefully gives them a shock because we have to be better. If we want to continue what we’ve been doing the quality has to be a lot better.”

City will have another opportunity to make up some ground on Tilbury when they travel to face the Dockers on Saturday (1 February).