Reflecting on Thursday's game, in which his side took a ninth minute lead through Adam Murray, then were pegged back by Paul Carden's screamer and finished the game resisting a resurgent Cambridge side and killing time until the final whistle, Chris Wilder praised his men for resisting the late pressure.

"I thought the lads were excellent - they came under a bit of pressure at the back end of the second half," he said.

"I'm a bit disappointed because we should have come in at half-time with more than one goal; we missed two or three great opportunities, then got done by a wonder goal and they then put us under a bit of pressure for ten or fifteen minutes.

"When that pressure comes, players have to stand big, strong and tall. I thought we did that and our goalkeeper made some great saves, but we then had two or three chances at the end to win it. Four points out of two on the road for a team that has an atrocious away record is a good collection and if we take four points from every two games from now until the end of the season then we won't be far off the play-offs."

Neither side did well at maintaining possession in a high tempo game, as Wilder noted, but he was disappointed the U's - and particularly Danny Potter in the first half - prevented his men from building on their early goal.

"I thought the first ten to fifteen minutes we were fantastic, then we got the goal and panicked a little bit where we started rushing things and the turnover of the ball was dramatic as we kept giving the ball away. But the lads got back into it and for the last ten to fifteen minutes of the first half we should have put the game to bed and we should have been looking towards the second half just to see the game out.

"If we're to be successful this year we have to be a touch more clinical in the final third, and if we had been we would have won the game."

Paul Carden levelled the scores in the 73rd minute with his first goal for United, a fantastic 25-yard strike after drifting in from the left, and Wilder admitted it was a goal no team could have prevented.

"I don't mind goals going in like that. You hate to see your team conceding sloppy goals, but when someone whacks one in from 25 yards, yes, we could have dealt with it a little better from the throw-in but you hold your hands up - I don't mind that."

He concluded, "We could have gone under but we didn't and came back strongly and I'm not disappointed with the players one little bit.

"Tonight was an excellent advert for the league, with both teams going at it the right way. There were tackles flying in and the game had everything including two great goals, great saves and action all the way."

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