MICKEY Lewis urged his team to try to find a ruthless streak after they let bogey team Bury off the hook in a 1-1 draw at the Manor on Saturday.
The U's failed to build on another early goal from Jamie Lambert and couldn't capitalise on Bury having Andy Preece sent off midway through the second half.
It's now two wins and two draws from the four games Lewis has been in charge as caretaker manager and in each one of those four, United have let the opposition come back to level after taking the lead.
"It's up to us to start killing teams off when we go up," Lewis said.
"The second goal of a game is the most important goal, but we couldn't quite get it.
"But fair play to Bury, they never ever give up and that's a good trait of theirs."
Lewis added: "We played well in the first half and it was a tribute to how well we were playing that Bury changed their tactics to combat us. Paul Tait was doing some very good things for us and in the second half, they stuck someone on him. "But what pleased me was that, for the first time, I thought the players looked as though they felt this is the way we should be playing. There was some good passing and movement."
people around and drag their players out of position, and we did that quite well.
"I wasn't disappointed with the lads' performance or effort, but I'm disappointed for them by the result. You could see the disappointment on their faces."
Lewis surprised some fans by not having ex-Wimbledon midfielder Peter Fear even among his substitutes, but he insisted that was just to give him more attacking options on the bench.
Bury manager Neil Warnock was delighted by his team's battling qualities with ten men, but less enamoured with Preece who got a second yellow card for a reckless challenge on Neil McGowan, just two minutes after being booked for an off-the-ball flare-up with Mark Watson.
"I thought we were magnificent, we had so much bottle," Warnock said. "Preece let us down. He thought he didn't deserve to be booked but once you've been booked, you've got to be careful."
Tait felt it was another smash-and-grab act from Bury.
"They had one chance and took it, which was what they did here last year.
"We played really well in the first half but in the second we maybe played a bit too deep and were waiting for something to happen."
But he agreed that the players were happier with the style of play under Lewis who, for the moment at least, is not looking for the high ball for a tall centre forward to flick on.
"It's called football and it's got to be played with the feet," said Tait.
Story date: Monday 15 November
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