'Our worst performance of pre-season' - Harris 'didn't enjoy' friendly against Cobblers
Cambridge United manager Neil Harris both criticised his own team and praised Northampton after admitting he ‘didn’t enjoy’ Tuesday’s 0-0 draw at the Abbey Stadium.
The U’s have swapped divisions with Cobblers after winning promotion last season and will therefore be playing in League One once the new campaign gets underway, while Town return to the fourth tier.
However, there was little to suggest a significant difference between the sides when they met for a pre-season friendly on Tuesday, if anything the League Two visitors had the better of it.
“I’ve got to be honest, I didn’t really enjoy it,” admitted Harris. “But it’s also sort of what I expected. You do tend to get a bit of a lull after you’ve been away like we have. I’m just relieved it’s out of the way to be honest.
“We pushed lads to get minutes in their legs but did we play with the intensity and quality that I expect? No, we didn’t. We did in moments but there wasn’t enough of them.
“To be fair, I thought Northampton played really well. They were right at it and played with intensity. But that was definitely our worst performance of pre-season and there was a lot I didn’t like, especially in the first half.
“We’ve not done a lot of short, sharp stuff around the box and in the final third and I thought we lacked quality in tight areas and we certainly lacked it in the final third and that’s going to be our focus over the next 10 days.
“We also lacked a bit of leadership and game understanding in the first half, which was disappointing, but it’s pre-season and I need to see things like that. It’s a great learning curve for me and I learned a lot tonight - some good, some bad.”