Cambridge boss Harris wants positive end to season
Neil Harris was appointed by Cambridge as Garry Monk's replacement
- Published
Cambridge United boss Neil Harris has urged his team to treat every game as a "one-off" as they look for an uplift in results over the closing weeks of the season.
Defeat by Peterborough United last weekend - their fourth in a row - left the U's next to bottom of League One and 13 points from safety with just nine games to play.
And their chances of what would be a remarkable escape from relegation are not helped by having to play four of the current top six, including runaway leaders Birmingham City on the final day of the campaign.
"I'm seeing some really good performances, individually and collectively, but we're falling short. It's my job to work out why we're falling short," Harris told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.
"The position was tough when I came in, it's even tougher now, but we have to find a way to win games.
"That's not just about staying in the division this year, that's about building momentum and confidence going into next season."
Cambridge won the first two games of Harris' second spell in charge, but results have fallen away since then - although three of the four defeats were by a 1-0 scoreline.
"I don't think there's any issue with what we're doing structurally, we've given very little away and are creating chances," he said.
"We're not a million miles off, we just have to make sure we fall the right side of those margins."
They travel to out-of-sorts and managerless Barnsley on Saturday, and then take on Northampton Town at home a week later, both of which look like must-win games, given the fixture list that follows.
"Our last three away games - Crawley, comfortably won; Wigan, shouldn't have got beat; Blackpool, deserved to win the game - we're playing really well on the road, with confidence and belief, scored some goals," Harris added.
"Let's go (to Barnsley) with some freedom, every game now is a one-off game, let's go and enjoy it and make sure we're better in both boxes than the opponent, that's all that's missing for us at the moment."