Barrow joint manager Dave Bayliss admitted to he was "gutted" to lose 2-0 at home to Cambridge United last night, but hailed the U's as a well-organised team and wished us success in our promotion aims.

The home side beat Histon with a late goal last week and set out to create a similar upset last night, but after holding United at bay for just over an hour, the Barrow defence was finally breached by Chris Holroyd in the 63rd and 83rd minutes to seal a vital win.

"I am gutted, to be honest," admitted Bayliss, who is joint charge at Holker Street alongside Darren Sheridan. "I thought we played really well with a similar tempo to the Histon game last week, and we said at half time 'keep doing what you are doing but don't take chances'.

"We said a mistake would change the game and, unfortunately for us, it did. Whether it was a mis-hit clearance or an attempted pass I don't know, but it was still a mistake and they got in and scored and the game went flat after that.

"We were always in the game at nil-nil but they are a good team. They went one-nil ahead and kept the ball quite well and they put balls in dangerous areas, which we did in the first half. I thought in the second half we just ran out of steam a little bit towards the end, but the first goal took the stuffing out of us."

Pointing to Holroyd's first goal as the turning point of the game, he said, "Last week against Histon we said the first goal would be the important goal to get, and tonight Cambridge got the first one and that changed the game totally; when that went in we were always against it. We wanted to stay in the game as long as possible but that first goal changed the outcome of the game."

It was a missed clearance by Barrow defender Marcus Holness that let Holroyd in for the opening goal and Bayliss added, "We tell the players every week it's back to basics. I didn't see the two Cambridge centre halves chesting the ball down once and they are clever players in that respect - they know when to play and when not to play. If the ball is bouncing they would just put their foot through it and clear it up the pitch, but sometimes we shoot ourselves in the foot and that's what we've just done."

Praising United, and going on to wish us well, Bayliss concluded, "We were up against a top team, they're never going to give us anything for free. When that first goal went in it was a massive body blow. When you go a goal down against a team like Cambridge, they become even more difficult to break down because they are very well organised and know their jobs.

"The longer the game went on with them in front the harder the job got, but we've told the lads to take the positives out of this because they have got beaten two-nil by one of the best teams in the league but I don't think it really reflected the game.

"Good luck to Cambridge - Gary Brabin is a good friend of mine and I hope they go up this season and I hope they catch Burton."

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