Roy McFarland rued the chances missed by United players against Cardiff City yesterday, before and after they were reduced to ten, then nine, then eight men.

He was especially disappointed with Martin Butler's finishing, saying the U's top scorer "should have done better" with one first half opportunity. The much-admired 17-goal striker saw his second half penalty kick saved and had a poor game by his own high standards, although he was consistently clattered by increasingly desperate Cardiff players and spent much of the match admiring the Abbey turf at close quarters.

"Our finishing was very poor," McFarland told the Cambridge Evening News. "Cardiff packed their box and made it very difficult for us, but we had enough chances to win.

"The best of them fell to our best striker, Martin Butler, from the penalty spot, and you expect him to put those away. He also had a very good opportunity in the first half, but failed to hit the target. He should have done better."

United just shaded a poor first half and McFarland was was not unhappy with the early play, saying, "We were the better side even before Cardiff started losing players in the first half, but couldn't take advantage of it. What was annoying was that we did beat the keeper, when John Taylor's shot was kept out by a defender's hand. He got punished by being sent off, but in a sense so did we because it prevented a goal. They got another chance and their keeper saved the penalty.

"It was obviously very frustrating when Cardiff were down to eight men and we couldn't get a goal from anywhere. In fairness I thought we played some good football. We got balls in there, got headers back across the box and turned their defenders, but they got people in the way, and not much fell for us. When it did we didn't hit the target. Overall we did enough to deserve three points, but again couldn't get them."

Midfielder Ian Ashbee (left) held up his hands after missing a clear chance midway through the second half. Set up by Butler he hammered a shot just wide and admitted, "I should have hit the target.

"We had chances, despite them not coming out of their box. We needed something to drop for us, or get a deflection, but it didn't happen."

Player-coach John Taylor, preferred to youngster Tom Youngs when he was sent on in the second half in an attempt to break down the Bluebirds' defensive wall, tried to look on the bright side. "I don't think I've played against eight men, they got everybody behind the ball and made it very difficult, but we should have won it," he said.

"Some people said my shot was over the goal line when their player handled it, but I couldn't tell from my angle. It was a chance missed to get a win, but we mustn't dwell on it, we've got to take something positive from the game. We kept a clean sheet, got a point, and went up a place in the table."

Cardiff boss Frank Burrows was too unhappy to speak to the assembled media but his striker Kevin Nugent, who did a sterling job as an emergency centre half, told the CEN, "I thought we were in big trouble when we got the second red card. That meant I had to go to centre-half. To get a point when we were down to eight, and with a penalty against us was amazing. We just had to sit in there and try to get in the way of everything.

"To be fair to Cambridge, it isn't as easy as people think playing against a team which can only defend, and we did it very well. The lads showed a lot of guts. I think we deserved the draw."