Mickey Lewis says it's very frustrating for the U's management that the players seem unable to take what they do on the training ground onto the field in matches.

The players have responded in training to everything that coach Lewis and boss Darren Patterson have asked of them, but they then seem unable to deliver in front of goal when it matters.

Lewis said: "They're a great bunch of lads and a pleasure to take training.

"All we need to do is take what we're doing on the training ground into the match. In little spells we do that."

Patterson admitted that when he was a player, he always promised himself that if he became a manager he would not force his players to come in to the club on Christmas Day.

And he kept to that promise, insisting that they still trained, but that they could do it themselves - and would be trusted to do it.

Lewis said: "We trained hard on Christmas Eve. For footballers there's not a lot of Christmas really, but people have got families, we've got a couple who travel a fair distance.

"So we thought it would be better if they had their own programme to do on Christmas Day - it would only have been a light session the day before a game anyway - and hopefully that would benefit them with the number of games coming up."

And the policy paid off as United battled to a 1-0 win against Crawley the next day.