Having recently notched his half century of senior appearances in black and amber, United academy product Harry Darling has quickly set his sights on the work he must put in to earn the next 50.
“It (reaching 50 appearances) was a very nice moment for myself and for my family, but I’m already looking at another 50, I have to keep building on it,” said the Bottisham based defender.
“I still feel really young, and I still want to learn what I can from Greg (Taylor) and Tafty. They are both well experienced centre halves, and I love every minute of playing alongside and learning what I can from them.
“I simply have to keep playing well to stay in the team and play my part to ensure the team can continue picking up results.”
Reflecting on appearance number 52, which saw the U’s unbeaten run in February ended by Carlisle on Saturday, Darling admits United’s downfall came as a result of standards dipping below the levels set throughout the month.
He said: “We were all disappointed with the end of the unbeaten run, but I don’t the intensity or the quality was there in our performance in comparison to the levels we have set ourselves over the last month.
“We were too passive and didn’t press enough in the first half, and we didn’t make Carlisle work as hard as we should have done. They were both poor goals to concede, we didn’t mark well enough in the box and that’s the really disappointing thing because they are goals we should be finding a way not to concede.
“We still believed we could get ourselves back in the game, even at 0-2 down, and we managed to grab the one back but it just wasn’t our day. It is a good characteristic to have. So we will learn from that and go again.”
With United targeting a bounce back at the first time of asking when they travel to Brisbane Road to face Leyton Orient this Saturday, Darling confirms the team’s mindset has quickly shifted on to the next task in East London.
“We have to keep doing what we have been doing. We know it (Carlisle game) wasn’t the best from us but we have to look to go again and get a win on Saturday (Leyton Orient game). All you can do is aim to bounce back, we can’t change how it went for us in the past.
“Of course we’ll analyse parts of the game in the week to make improvements where we can, but the focus does quickly move on in football to the next job.”
Tickets for Saturday’s fixture at Leyton Orient are available at cufcdirect.com here. The fixture is all ticket.