Neil Harris described himself as “absolutely gutted and feel absolutely robbed” after Cambridge were beaten by rivals Peterborough.
The U’s dominated long periods but fell to a 1-0 defeat courtesy of Tayo Edun’s freekick, leaving them 12 points from safety with only nine games left in Sky Bet League One.
Edun had an eventful game, scoring the winner and then being sent off deep into added time following a second booking.
“Cambridge fans should feel exactly the same. I can’t talk any more positively about the group and their attitude and demand to want to win, application to go and play on the pitch and play really well at times.
“Everything about it was so good, apart from the most important part; putting the ball in the goal and stopping it at the other end.
“We were the better team, better in so many ways. We created chance after chance after chance, didn’t have the killer moment in front of goal. Why? Because its about the culture. I can’t change that today, I couldn’t change it during the week. I can change it in transfer windows, I can change it from the first day of pre-season. But it has to change.
“People don’t deserve to pay hard-earned money, bring their kids to football, to come and watch their team get beat. It’s not fair and I don’t want to be the manager of this football club that sees that. I won’t have that but I can’t change it today.”
Victorious boss Darren Ferguson acknowledged his side had to dig deep in order to secure victory that moved them on to 42 points, nine ahead of the relegation zone prior to Saturday’s 3pm games.
“This was always going to be a battle, a fight,” he said. “We’ve shown good character today to win this game. They were in a position where they’d not much to lose, if I’m going to be honest. That’s always a dangerous opponent. I knew the kind of game it would be.
“(It’s) similar to last season, we spanked them at our place and then dug out a 1-0 here. It was always going to be a bit of quality to win a game like that.
“We controlled the game early doors, we contained anything they gave us. In the second half we just needed to step up the quality in the last third. They got more in the game and we gave up one or two half chances to them. But then Tayo’s freekick is the bit of quality that’s won the game.
“What I keep saying to the players is if we get to the level of mentality and performance, consistency, then things will take care of themselves. We’ve shown that.”
