Cambridge United head coach Neil Harris full of praise for players after 2-1 victory at Colchester United

What a difference a few days can make in football.

By his own admission, Neil Harris was a frustrated figure on Saturday after watching his Cambridge United side be pegged back in a 1-1 draw with Harrogate Town.

He demanded more resilience and leadership from his group – and they duly responded tonight at Colchester United.

After falling behind early on, quickfire goals late in the first half from James Brophy and Mamadou Jobe secured Cambridge’s first away league victory of the campaign.

Reflecting on the performance, Harris told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire: “I dealt with my reaction (on Saturday) as to why I’m a grumpy old football manager at times because of my demands to succeed at this football club and to drive the group forward – that’s my job.

“I was annoyed after the weekend. I was upset about Michael’s (Morrison) injury and also the fact we didn’t win the game comfortably.

“Tonight I can’t praise my players highly enough. It’s a tough place to come, Colchester. I saw them quite a lot in the second half of last season and I thought they were outstanding here.

“They were one of the form teams in the second half of the season and they’re so difficult to play against. They’ve got some really good players and we knew it was going to a real tough challenge because they’d built some real momentum at the weekend by winning at Shrewsbury.

“They were tough for us to breakdown. We found ourselves behind, but I wasn’t worried tonight. I don’t know what it was, I was just confident we’d bounce back. I think it was because for the first 40 minutes we could have been six-up.

“You don’t get six clear-cut chances and score six goals, but we had chance after chance in the first half – I knew chances would come.

“To turn it around how we did before half-time was very pleasing, but my team talk wouldn’t have changed at half-time. I was still going to say ‘much of the same chaps, demand the ball and be creative’.

“All we had to do in the second half was the football basics and we did it really well.”