Cambridge boss Mark Bonner hit out at the “hopeless goals” his side gave away during Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Northampton.
There was nothing in a goalless first half but United fell apart after the restart when a defensive mix-up allowed Kieron Bowie to break the deadlock.
Sam Hoskins added a swift second, his 10th of the season, and that proved too much for Cambridge to come back from despite Gassan Ahadme scoring late on.
Cambridge have just one win in their last 12 League One games and are now 16th in the table.
“The first half was fine and we chased it well enough at the end but we gave the game away with two hopeless goals in a five-minute spell at the start of the second half,” said Bonner.
“We were OK and had a couple of half decent chances, both teams did, and defensively we were doing OK but it doesn’t matter because we’ve giftwrapped a game that we should never have lost.
“The goal just after half-time is a hopeless goal to give away. We looked vulnerable and they caused us problems when they played forward.
“The goal gives them a leg up and they score another one quickly, they outplay and outrun us in that moment and Hoskins has the quality that we don’t have in that part of the pitch and it becomes a difficult task for us.
“The boys came on from the bench and gave us everything they could to try and help us but we couldn’t find the quality we needed to get an equaliser.
“We turned the ball over too cheaply and we have a lot to do because the result isn’t good enough, our form isn’t good enough and the goals we’re conceding aren’t good enough.”
Having now won back-to-back games, Northampton have leapt up to 15th in League One.
“The second half was much better,” said manager Jon Brady. “We needed to be more purposeful with our forward runs.
“I thought we dominated the ball in the first half and we dominated in terms of chances but I felt we could have played with more purpose and break their back-line a bit more.
“We started to do that and the second goal, where Patrick Brough underlaps, gets to the byline and cuts it back for Sam to score, that’s what we really wanted and we felt we could hurt them in that way.
“We got a bit of fortunate with the first goal when Kieron chases a lost cause and the goalkeeper makes a mess of it, but it was down to Kieron’s persistence and pressure.
“We didn’t finish the game how we wanted to finish it and Cambridge threw caution to the wind but to get three points and to jump up a few places in the table, that’s the most important thing.”
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