Derry left embarrassed by 'disgusting' U's display

The U’s boss saw his side second best from virtually the first whistle, as once Dan Potts opened the scoring midway through the first half, it was one way traffic, as they were breached a further six times.

Facing the press afterwards, Derry said: “I thought it was disgusting if I’m honest.

“In terms of the first 15 minutes I thought we started the game really well but the game is not played over 15 minutes, it’s played over 95.

“The game was over at 3-0. There’s not any team that I’ve seen come back from three goals adrift at Luton.

“I thought all three were from a team that shot themselves in the foot; individual errors that cost us dearly, like a knock-on effect.

“It was one after the other. As soon as the first goal went in and you want to try to get a footprint on the game, but it was a disastrous performance today.

“That’s not happened at that level too often for me at Cambridge United. I feel embarrassed by it, if I’m honest. I feel really embarrassed and I’m sure that every fan that has paid to come and watch us today is going home feeling angry, embarrassed and aggrieved because I am.”

United had gone into the game with one of the best defensive records in the division, but that was left in tatters as Luton ran riot, with Danny Hylton nothing the perfect hat-trick.

Derry added: “I’m not going to make in any softer to what it already is.

“I’m not that kind of guy. I’ve sat here through good and bad and I’ve only ever tried to give you (the media) honesty and I can only say today that I’m so deeply hurt and embarrassed by that performance.

“What I will say is that for 99 per cent of the time I’ve been in charge of this football club I’ve been very proud of the players and I’d like to think that this is a perfect storm we’ve had this week.

“The whole week has been severely affected and you hoping, going into a game, that you can suddenly cause a stir against the odds and we definitely didn’t do that today.”