Cambridge United 0-1 Stevenage match report: Jamie Reid scores only goal to win League One encounter against Neil Harris’ side

Cambridge United suffered their first defeat since Neil Harris returned to the club with a 1-0 loss at home to Stevenage tonight.

The surprise reunion with head coach Harris had sparked new life into United’s League One survival bid following back-to-back 2-0 victories over Stockport County and Crawley Town.

But there was to be no third win in a row for Harris’ men as the gap to safety grew from six to seven points with 13 fixtures remaining.

As far as first halves go, they do not get much more turgid than this evening’s opening 45 minutes.

While it was certainly a competitive and physical affair, neither side managed to produce any attacking quality of note and therefore it was no surprise when they trudged off at the break having failed to register an attempt on or off target between them.

In contrast, it took just five minutes for the second half to supply some much-needed goalmouth action. Jamie Reid cut the ball back from the right flank for an onrushing Brandon Hanlan, who saw his subsequent effort turned against the post by Cambridge goalkeeper Nathan Bishop.

However, Bishop was unable to replicate those heroics in the 64th minute when Stevenage decisively broke the deadlock. After picking up the ball on the edge of the Cambridge box, Reid took a couple of touches to shift the ball away from Kell Watts and Jubril Okedina before unleashing an effort that dipped out of Bishop’s reach.

Six minutes later Bishop was again in the thick of the action – this time the Sunderland loanee got down well to his left to turn Eli King’s low effort around the post and from the result corner Stevenage captain Carl Piergianni headed over.

In what was fast becoming a theme of the second half, it was Bishop to the rescue again for Cambridge in the 79th minute when he kept out a shot from close range by an off-balance Jordan Roberts.

At the other end, Cambridge were finding it nigh on impossible to breakdown a rearguard that was expertly marshalled by Piergianni and his partner in crime Dan Sweeney. The commanding defensive pair were at their dominant best to first see off U’s forward Ryan Loft, who was subbed at half-time, while his replacement Dan Nlundulu also got no change out of the duo. In fact, their stranglehold on the fixture was best highlighted by the statistics at the final whistle which showed that Cambridge had been unable to have single shot on target – and just one off target – across the entire 90 minutes. Murphy Cooper in the Stevenage goal will have seldom enjoyed an easier night’s work.

Cambridge United: Bishop, Bennett, Morrison, Watts, Okedina (Ballard 68’), Digby, Stevenson, Brophy, Stokes, Kachunga (Barton 82’), Loft (Nlundulu 46’)

Stevenage: Cooper, Butler, Piergianni, Sweeney, Freeman, Phillips, Thompson, King (White 80’), Roberts, Hanlan, Reid