Cambridge United head coach Neil Harris unhappy with ‘night and day’ performance during League Two 1-1 draw with Harrogate Town

Head coach Neil Harris was far from impressed by the ‘night and day’ performance that his Cambridge United players produced during this afternoon’s 1-1 draw with Harrogate Town.

For 45 minutes the U’s were dominant at the Cledara Abbey Stadium, producing some neat, intricate football and creating a number of good goalscoring chances.

However, they converted just one of those and were made to pay the price when Harrogate equalised early on after the restart. And once the scoreline was levelled up, United struggled to regain control of proceedings.

Harris said: “We shot ourselves in the foot. We have to be more ruthless when we’re so on top, so dominant and so good.

“We have to be more ruthless in those moments and we have to be 3-0 up in the first half because there’s every chance they’ll score a goal (in the second half).

“There’s nothing but disappointment today. We can look at how brilliant we were for 45 minutes and I think the fans will go home and go ‘we didn’t half look good for a period’.

“But we can’t be night and day. We can’t be that good for one half and then disappointing for the next half an hour – it just can’t happen. I have to have more leadership in the group than that and I have to have better resilience in the group than that.

“To concede like we did is really poor – it’s so League Two. My players have got to be better than that. I can’t keep praising my players and say how good of a team they can be and what we’ll achieve and then concede a goal like that again.

“We knew Harrogate would be better in the second half and we knew it would be different playing up-wind. But I said to the boys nothing changes, we had to start (the second half) well.

“As much as we’d played some beautiful football, we done the basics really well (in the first half). But if you don’t do it for 90 minutes you’re going to get punished at some stage. We switched off for two minutes at Swindon and let two goals in and we switched off for 30 seconds today and let a goal in. That’s not the mentality that gets you a clean sheet.”

Asked what changed in an attacking quarter of goalscorer Louis Appere, Ben Knight, James Brophy and Sullay Kaikai that had looked so bright and fluent during the first half, Harris added: “All four attacking players had moments where they turned the ball over cheaply (early in the second half) and then they maybe went a little bit safe after that.

“That can’t happen – first half we wasn’t safe. There was dynamism and flair, but second half they all turned it over cheaply at the start and then there was a safety catch on – I don’t want that from my attacking players.”