Cambridge United recovered from a poor start at Chester after defensive mistakes handed the home side the lead in 32 seconds and a two-goal advantage within 20 minutes.

But moments before half-time Chris Holroyd's penalty and Robbie Willmott's free kick levelled the score, and two well-taken second half goals by Holroyd capped a brilliant comeback for the U's against his former club.

"After 30 seconds my great team talk all went to pot!" admitted Martin Ling, who took charge of his first competitive United match today.

"There were two mistakes from two senior players - one from Pottsy and one from Hatswell. I'm told they were solid as a rock all last season but within a 20 minute period they've both made stupid mistakes and they accept that; they said to the lads 'thanks for getting us out of a hole'," Ling added.

"The recovery and the turnaround was spectacular. Those two goals just before half-time obviously put us on the front foot and when we pass the ball with a purpose we look like a good team, but I worry a little bit because we're a little bit open for me, especially away from home."

Ling has already stated that it will take time for him to fully stamp his influence on the team, and he highlighted some of his concerns thus: "We stretch teams and move the ball and spread out, but it's that next phase and how we condense more quickly when we lose the ball.

"It's obviously a work in progress but that's something I've picked up on today and you don't ignore the fact that it was excellent going forward but we need to have a better defensive mentality within the side. Those goals changed it all around but I still let a few know at half-time where we can do better.

"There's no point hiding away from the facts, and the facts were it wasn't good enough in the first half. We got out of jail with the late goals and in the second half I thought we were always going to win the game once we started to pass. Chester ran out of a little bit of steam and you can possibly put that down to their lack of games over pre-season."

Ling also revealed that he has worked with Chris Holroyd to make the most of his pace and he was pleased to see the striker adapting his game today: "Chrissy has got blistering pace and I'm just trying to get him to work on the last man.

"He keeps coming towards the ball but if he works on that last man he can be a danger because people can't live with his pace and he's got good quality in the finishing as well."

The former Leyton Orient boss is aware that back-to-back wins this week have lifted United to fourth in the table and he urged realism about the club's expectations this season: "We have good players here but is there strength in depth? Possibly not, and we're going to need a bit of luck with suspensions and injuries, but if we can get our best eleven out there then we've got a chance.

"Because we've had two play-off final defeats people will have expectations but the budget was a lot different then to what it is now, but you can overachieve if you get a team to play with confidence."

United are next in action at home to Crawley Town on Tuesday (7.45pm) and although he has not seen them play he already has a good idea of what to expect.

"I'm not going to pretend I know a lot about Crawley yet but I've played against a Steve Evans team in the League at Boston and I know what they're going to be like," he said. "They'll be up and at you, working hard, and we'll have to match that and put our best foot forward.

"It will be nice to go back to the Abbey after two wins because I hear from Paul (Carden) that we played well against Barrow without getting our just reward so it will be good if we can get a good result for the home fans too.

"Standing there after 20 minutes you wonder what you've let yourself in for, but you have to take the rough with the smooth throughout the season and I saw some really good signs as well as some deficiencies we need to work on, and as a manager that's what you have to do over a season."

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