Northampton boss Dean Austin: Football is a cruel game sometimes

Northampton manager Dean Austin was “absolutely gutted” by his side’s failure to claim all three points following Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Cambridge.

After a goalless first half, Kevin van Veen twice gave Northampton the lead with two emphatic finishes but George Maris cancelled out the first before Gary Deegan struck with just three minutes left to earn the U’s a point.

“I’m gutted, absolutely gutted,” said Austin. “That’s football – it’s a cruel game sometimes.

“Having seen what they created, I wouldn’t say we looked shaky. They had a couple of set-pieces but on the whole I felt we were fairly comfortable to be honest.

“We’ve worked very hard on the training field but we have to be better at closing the game out. I think the players deserve unbelievable credit for the football that they are playing and the way we are trying to play the game.

“I thought we were excellent again but we’ve got to dust ourselves down and regroup and learn how to close games out.

“I felt at half-time that we needed a little more composure and guile in the final third to exploit the space they were leaving for us, but you can’t be having to score three goals at home to be winning a game of football and that’s what we’ve spoken about and that’s the disappointment.

“We’ll look at their two goals but it’s very hard to take at this moment in time.”

Cambridge boss Joe Dunne hailed a valuable point for his team.

He said: “It’s a good point for us and a deserved point in the end at a club who are expected to challenge for promotion. We showed great character twice and to go away with a draw is of value to us.

“We know where we are at the moment and we know there are one or two things to work on, but that’s what the training pitch is for.

“They are chasing their first win but we dug in and never gave up right until the very end and what epitomised that was Gary scoring a wonderful goal.

“They had a bit of pressure and territory in the game for sure and I think (Dimitar) Mitov was worked in the first half but you can have as many chances as you want, you’ve got to score them.

“I thought that we had a good game plan today and we were organised and it was a really good away performance.

“We started the game exceptionally well but they really came into the game and they will argue they deserved to take the lead twice, but we responded every time we had to and we were a threat. We’ll always fight.”