Roy McFarland referred to Saturday's defeat by Millwall as "bitterly disappointing" after his team again failed to build on an excellent mid-week away win.

A bumper crowd of 5,116, including over 1,500 in the away end, witnessed a disjointed performance from a unchanged United side who had earned rave reviews about the method of the win at Bury on Tuesday night.

"I can't fault any player for effort, and our football generally was very good," commented McFarland in a post-match interview that astonished the fans who heard it on Radio Cambridgeshire as they made their unhappy way home.

"We created enough chances to have got something out of the game. I think our supporters will appreciate that. Unfortunately we missed a penalty, but we might have had another one," he told the Cambridge Evening News. "The lads were adamant Marc Joseph was fouled by the keeper, but maybe the referee thought one was enough.

"In a sense, we created our own problems though, by giving away the early goals. Shaun Marshall knows he should have done better for the first, and we didn't defend well in several areas for the second.

"But the results have gone for us, and we haven't lost ground. The games are coming thick and fast now, and anything can happen. If you don't believe you have a chance, you won't have, but we believe we can get out of trouble. We didn't lose in disgrace to Millwall."

Player-coach John Taylor, who hit the post from the vital penalty kick, told the CEN he believed his side had created enough to have got something out of a game in which generally there was not almost a division's difference between the teams.

Defender Scott Eustace added, "We made mistakes and the damage was done. However well you play after that, and we did play well at times, you are always chasing the game, and it's very difficult against a top team."