Cambridge United suffered the second home defeat of the season as Crawley took the lead in the first half well against the run of play, then shut up shop and resisted and frustrated the U's after the break.

Mark Beesley had a shot saved and Robbie Willmott hit the bar with a free kick before Jamie Cook put Crawley ahead with a 27th minute goal that looked offside to many. Chances for both teams followed in the second half, but former U's loanee Charles Ademeno hit the woodwork twice for Crawley as the visitors' well-drilled defence left United chasing shadows, and Dan Gleeson headed United's final chance wide at a stoppage time corner.

"We had a fair amount of the play in the first half but never really cut them open with the chances we had," commented Ling after a frustrating match came to an ill-tempered end.

"I'll sound like an old-fashioned manager but their goal looked offside to me from where I was standing, but I felt that in the second half we ran out of ideas.

"We looked like we were going very individualistic rather than a team. If you're going to get through people it's not about individuals breaking them down, you break them down as a team, but there were too many times when I saw a couple of their players going for balls and none of ours.

"It looked like the confidence had been taken out of us," he added. "In the first half and the first 20 minutes of the second half we had enough of the ball, but their goalie has never really been stretched. We had a good chance at the end but that's not good enough in my opinion."

As the second half progressed United resorted to longer balls into the Crawley half, which were lapped up the their defenders, as the manager noted: "We haven't got a 6ft 4ins centre forward so it's no good us pumping it up there for them to just win it straight back down the middle. We need to win the ball, pass the ball and then move on to the next phase of play but you've got to do that as a team.

"Robbie Willmott was probably our best player on the night and there were a few good signs from him, but we need more of that as a team."

Crawley's time-wasting tactics for most of the second half frustrated United players and supporters alike and there were bad-tempered scenes at the end between U's fans and Crawley boss Steve Evans, but Ling preferred to concentrate on the football:

"Crawley sneaked the goal and to be fair they defended it well.

"They've eaten up the clock and they've made it difficult, so they've walked away with the three points and a smile on their faces and we've got the long faces.

"We've won the two away games and lost the two home games and there's got to be a reason for that. We've lost here to Barrow and Crawley and if you're going to be a successful side you've got to put a good home record together and you need to be doing it here in front of your home support."

Finally, Ling confirmed his desire to add a central defender to the squad and revealed that he hopes to make a signing before Saturday's match at Tamworth, now that Ben Farrell has joined Histon on loan.

"We've only got the two central defenders in the club so we've had to juggle the squad a little bit," he said. "My ideal situation would be to keep Ben Farrell and go and get a centre half, but the money doesn't allow that to happen so we have to move people out of an area where we've got plenty of people and get someone in where we haven't got enough people.

"I'm hopeful of doing something in the next 48 hours and I'm hoping to move it in the right direction before Thursday, which would be pleasing for us."

United are next in action at Tamworth on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.

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