Neil Harris not happy with Cambridge’s late capitulation against Huddersfield

Neil Harris felt his side had thrown the points away after Cambridge lost at home to Huddersfield.

The U’s went ahead through Zak Bradshaw just 10 minutes from the end, only for Joe Taylor to immediately hit back for the away side. The Terriers then found a winner a minute from the end of normal time when Taylor converted a penalty that he had won.

Harris’ side have four points from their opening three games following promotion to League One, while Huddersfield’s late winner sees them sit second in the early league table with seven points from a possible nine, behind Blackpool on goal difference.

“Let’s be honest, it was unprofessional,” Harris said.

“You don’t get 1-0 up and absolutely cruising in a game and be, without dominating chances, as comfortable as we were against a top side. You can’t throw it away when you’re 1-0 up with 10 minutes to go. It’s just not acceptable.

“I’d go so far as saying it’s unprofessional by players, and senior players in particular.

“We limited a side that have been so dominant in games they’ve played so far to next to nothing. In one way I feel that they’ve come and mugged us off for three points, they didn’t deserve it, but ultimately we’ve shot ourselves in the foot.

“When you give Joe Taylor opportunities like that then he’s going to punish you. That’s what £3million gets you.

“There are so many positives from the performance, so many good individual performances, a good, strong, team performance, but ultimately you can’t be positive in the moment because we’ve been unprofessional to throw away three points.”

Martin Drury feels his Huddersfield side must play better but praised their ability to earn three points.

“I think there’s a lot of value in winning games of football where you don’t play well,” he said.

“The win is obviously really, really pleasing. To take three points, to come to a difficult place, in a game that was a very, very challenging game for us. So it’s pleasing that we won the game.

“The performance was nowhere near the level we would have liked in terms of football, in terms of quality, in terms of what we’d planned going into the game.

“We spoke about (how) the game would take a while to settle down. I don’t think it ever settled, throughout the whole game. But then at that point it becomes about men, about character, about endeavour, about togetherness, about spirit, about finishing strong.

“I think you can see today there’s a group of men that are fighting for each other, fighting for the club, for the badge, for the fans.”