Barry Corr has predicted a bright future for Cambridge United, despite seeing his side crash out of the FA Cup prior to the third-round stage.
The U's fell to a 3-1 defeat to Doncaster Rovers on Sunday afternoon to see their dreams of matching last season's achievement - in which they held Manchester United to a goalless draw - come to an end.
Regardless of the disappointing nature of the loss, Corr insisted after the match that plenty of positives can now be taken into United's League Two campaign.
"I think we now look like a high energy team that gets on the front foot, and if we can eradicate the bad spells that we've had in a number of games, then we'll become a very competitive team," he told the club's official website. "We have dynamic players in the middle of the pitch which allow us to get in and around our opposition, which is the way the manager wants us to play.
"When you are playing up front on your own you can become slightly isolated at times, but with the energy that we have in our midfield and the players that we have around me, it never really felt like I was up on my own. For 45 minutes we played some fantastic stuff, but went missing for ten minutes which isn't acceptable and the manager spoke to us about that in the changing room.
"We'll take positives from the game though. In the first half we played very well and had lots of chances, and even after that bad spell we pushed on, never gave in and tried to get back into the game. We'll go to the training ground this week and work on the areas we need to improve on."
Cambridge are currently 15th in the table ahead of next weekend's meeting with high-flying Plymouth Argyle.