Boss Mark Yates was able to draw positives from his side's first defeat of the season at Cambridge United last night, praising his players for sticking to their task.

A Lee McEvilly brace handed the U's a first-ever home success over Harriers on Tuesday evening, with Justin Richards pulling back a late consolation as the game ended 2-1.

Despite the defeat, Yates took some encouragement from the team's performance, particularly in the first 45 minutes.

"I'm pleased with the way we played at times - in the first-half I thought we were excellent," he said following the game.

"They scored a poor goal on our part and we had a great chance to equalise before half-time, though the goalkeeper has made a good save to be fair to him.

"The second half was pretty even before they got the second goal, then they (Cambridge) upped it for ten or 20 minutes and were decent.

"But the lads stuck at it, had we got our goal back five or ten minutes earlier than we did it certainly would have been a bit more interesting."

Harriers were at times outdone by a physical approach adopted by the home side's veteran performers.

Whilst they weren't out-fought by their counterparts, Yates admitted that the visitors stopped doing what had served them well in the early stages of the game.

He went on: "I wouldn't go as far as to say we weren't physically at it, but we played into their hands a bit in the sense that we stopped giving the strikers decent balls.

"If you look at the service they got, nothing went over Hatswell, nothing went over Bolland and nothing went over the full-backs.

"We were under-hitting things - if you're going to hit things then hit them bigger and turn them round and get the second balls.

"The balls were meat and drink for (Hatswell and Bolland) - we've just had an open discussion on what we what to improve on.

"In the first half we played some neat stuff but just lacked that little edge."

Harriers are next in action when they travel to Billy McEwan's Mansfield Town this weekend (travel details HERE).

Yates added: "We have tremendous belief in the camp and there were a lot of positives - but we know we have a bit to work on, we know we aren't the finished article but it hasn't been for a lack of effort."