Neil Harris was frustrated and disappointed after Cambridge suffered a 2-0 League One defeat at home to Leyton Orient.
Goals after half-time by Jordan Brown and Daniel Agyei – the latter’s first for the club – secured victory for the O’s at the Abbey Stadium as Richie Wellens’ side made it through their three Christmas games unbeaten and without conceding a goal.
Cambridge suffered their first two losses under Harris in that time, with their other match at Stevenage on Friday postponed.
“I’ve told the players what I thought and left them in no uncertain terms in the changing room,” Harris said.
“In my first four games in charge we’ve been outstanding. We’ve picked up seven points against three of the four top-10 sides.
“Tonight we took a step backwards. The level of performance, individually and collectively was nowhere near what we’ve produced in the first four games.
“The biggest disappointment is a lack of character and strength in the performance.
“I’m not used to my teams being out-competed at times. I don’t like it. I won’t accept it and I certainly won’t accept it here at the Abbey.
“At times we looked a little bit vulnerable, which I’d seen in games I’d watched earlier in the season.
“We know we need to eradicate that quickly. But I’m not going to bemoan the group too much because the first month has been really impressive.
“We gave two really poor goals away, really soft goals. I don’t want to talk about individual mistakes. All I said to the group is ‘individually and collectively we have to be strong and what we can’t do is make repetitive mistakes’.”
Wellens praised his Orient side’s dominance after the break, when the two goals arrived.
“That 25-minute spell was really, really good,” said Wellens.
“Defensively (we were) very solid all game, I can’t remember really conceding a chance to a team that are difficult to beat here and we could have had a couple more goals.
“The supporters can see straight away what a threat he (Agyei) carries. We’ve signed him because he can play right, left and centre-forward.
“He’ll grow in confidence, it’s his first goal in months because he’s been out injured.
“He can take a lot from that game in terms of confidence from his goal but a lot from it physically. We are a hard team to play up front for.
“What I ask of them sets up the rest of the team and if the strikers don’t do it, it has a knock-on effect for the rest of our team.
“Our back four are not being overworked all the time. That was a massive benchmark of us last year and it’s non-negotiable.”
Haaland plunders hat-trick as Norway seal Nations League promotion
Norway made light work of Kazakhstan as Erling Haaland's hat-trick inspired them to a 5-0 victory in the Nations League on Sunday.
Without absent captain Martin Odegaard, Norway were skippered by Haaland at Ullevaal Stadion, where the Manchester City forward netted his 25th career hat-trick.
Haaland took his total of international goals to 38 in 39 appearances by scoring twice in the first half before rounding off his star turn in the 71st minute.
The 24-year-old now has 22 goals in all competitions for club and country this season, and is the leading scorer in the Nations League with seven strikes to his name.
Alexander Sorloth scored Norway's third goal, while Antonio Nusa, who was heavily involved in both of Haaland's first-half efforts, got in on the act in the 76th minute.
Norway's victory ensured they finished top of Group B3 on 13 points, two ahead of Austria, therefore promoting Stale Solbakken's team to League A.
England 5-0 Republic of Ireland: Carsley signs off with Nations League promotion
Lee Carsley signed off as England's interim manager with an emphatic 5-0 win over 10-man Republic of Ireland that sealed the Three Lions' Nations League promotion.
England took advantage of Liam Scales' sending-off with a ruthless second-half attacking display, with four first-time scorers helping to secure top spot in Group B2 and passage back to League A.
The first half was tight, with few chances for either side after Curtis Jones' early strike was deflected wide before Kyle Walker headed over from the resulting corner.
Yet the floodgates opened with three goals in the space of five minutes after the break.
Scales received a second yellow card for tripping Jude Bellingham in the box, and Harry Kane marked his return to the side by expertly dispatching the penalty.
Anthony Gordon volleyed in his first England goal shortly after, before Conor Gallagher was alert to meet Marc Guehi's flick-on at a corner.
Jarrod Bowen then made an instant impact after his introduction, sweeping a Bellingham corner through the crowd with his first touch of the match.
Taylor Harwood-Bellis rounded things off in the 79th minute, grabbing a debut goal as he thumped a header past Caoimhin Kelleher from six yards out after meeting another Bellingham corner.
Data Debrief: First time for everything
Carsley said on Saturday that he believed he was leaving the England squad in a good place for incoming boss Thomas Tuchel, having widened the pool of young players.
He has certainly done his bit, handing out eight senior debuts in all, with Tino Livramento and Harwood-Bellis the players to benefit against Ireland.
Meanwhile, in Gordon, Gallagher, Bowen, and Harwood-Bellis, four players have scored their first England goal in the same game for the first time since October 1930 v Northern Ireland, when Harry Burgess, Jimmy Hampson, Sammy Crooks, Eric Houghton were on target.
At the other end of the age spectrum, Kyle Walker made his 38th England appearance at Wembley, overtaking Wayne Rooney's total at the venue (37) – only Peter Shilton (52), Bobby Charlton (44), Bobby Moore (43), and Stuart Pearce (41) have now played there more often for the Three Lions.
Carsley, who has collected the biggest win as an interim England boss since Graham Taylor oversaw a 7-1 victory over San Marino in 1993, started his short reign with a win over Ireland in September, and England have now won three consecutive games against them for the very first time.
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
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