Cambridge United's second defeat in four days probably brought to an end any hopes of challenging for the title this season, but Gary Brabin wants his men to focus on regaining their form for a play-off campaign.

Stevenage took full advantage of slack defending to take the lead in the fourth minute through Junior Mendes, and former U's striker Lee Boylan gleefully cancelled out Robbie Willmott's 17th minute equaliser with a poacher's finish on 32 to settle the game.

The home side were reduced to ten men with just over an hour remaining when Mark Roberts was booked for a second time, but despite United throwing everything at the increasingly rattled home side they were unable to capitalise on the numerical advantage.

Admitting afterwards that the defeats have all but ended our hopes of automatic promotion, Brabin told the media, "We're really devastated. We've put so much into the last few months and we were so close, but for me that's just put to bed our chances of winning the league.

"But we're trying to look at that as a plus - it was getting a bit nervy and there was a lot of tension. You're always analysing leagues and games and saying 'if we win there and they lose there'. We've got a lot of young lads in this squad and it would have been a massive blow if we'd gone into the last game of the season really believing we were going to get promotion and then have to bounce back into the play-offs.

"So the plus for me is that we can concentrate now on nailing down our play-off place and hopefully getting to Wembley. The season is far from over," he added. "You look at this season and some people have been gifted three points through different circumstances, but we've had to work hard for every single game this season.

"There have been no 'gimme's for us. You hear of teams playing weakened sides for some reason, and other teams losing players because they're not getting paid, but that never seems to happen when we're playing games. Every game seems like a cup final and this was no exception.

"We were up against a team on their own turf who want to bounce back and that's the best we've seen them play for a while, but I thought we were the better side."

Despite falling behind in the fourth minute, Brabin felt his side started well: "It will probably sounded stupid but I thought we started quite brightly. We were passing the ball around, we looked lively and sharp and like we were going to hurt them, but then we conceded a silly goal and we're disappointed again with that. No one is ripping us open with great play and scoring fantastic goals; instead it's mistakes by us.

"So we were chasing the game and we pulled it back to one-all and I felt confident that we would go on and win it, but the second goal was a knock back. I thought in the second half we penned them back but we don't seem to have that killer instinct in front of goal at the moment.

"It seems at the moment that we're having to work really hard for our goals but we're confident it will turn around again. We just have to focus on these last four games of the season as a build-up to hopefully getting in the play-offs and the play-off final."

The travelling fans made it sound and feel like a home game for much of the game, and the U's boss commented, "The fans were absolutely fantastic again from the start to the finish and it really is a fantastic lift, especially when we went a goal down and you can hear our fans outsinging their fans and cheering us and backing us right to the end.

"We've got another tough game on Saturday against Eastbourne," he added. "People don't come to us to lie down and die, they come to impress and it will be another tough one. This is the first time we've had back-to-back defeats this season and we're absolutely devastated, but we've just got to dust ourselves down and get on with it."

Following Saturday's match at home to Eastbourne Borough (3pm), United are at Kettering Town on Easter Monday (3pm). This match is all-ticket for U's fans and tickets are currently on general sale from our ticket office - see this article for prices.

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