Shrewsbury Town 0-1 Cambridge United: Neil Harris praises ‘character’ after Southampton loanee Dom Ballard scores winning goal in League One clash at Croud Meadow

Neil Harris has praised the ‘character’ that his Cambridge United side showed during their ‘comfortable’ 1-0 win over Shrewsbury Town this afternoon.

In the battle of League One’s bottom two sides, it was 23rd-placed Cambridge that kept their slim survival hopes alive thanks to Dom Ballard’s second-half goal.

And Harris felt that his side were worthy winners as the gap to safety was cut to seven points with five fixtures remaining.

“It was comfortable, wasn’t it? The scoreline says it was close but we should have been more clinical in the first half,” said Harris.

“We got into so many good areas. I don’t think I’ve seen one of my teams have so many touches in the penalty area without scoring.

“I asked the boys for character. I was very clear post-match on Tuesday night how important this game was for me and the team.

“The boys will tell you that I maybe didn’t let up at all during the week. I’m just really, really pleased.

“We’ve fallen short a couple of times when we should have won games so I think it is well deserved.

“I want to see a lot more of that in the coming weeks, months, years.”

Meanwhile, recently-appointed Shrewsbury boss Michael Appleton said: “I take full responsibility for the goal we conceded.

“If we’re going to get better as a football club and grow and develop players, make money on players, and play football that people are actually going to want to pay good money to come and watch, we have to take those risks with the ball.

“A lot of the time it was good. A lot of the time it paid off, certainly in our defence, to the creative part of the pitch.

“We struggled a little bit in that creative last third and a few crosses were over-hit or under-hit, people taking an extra touch of the ball.

“I’ve just said to the players in there you need to keep being brave. If you keep being brave, you will get your rewards. Things will get worse before they get better. The reaction to going a goal behind was really good.”