Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was disappointed by the drop in Burton’s performance after the 3-0 defeat at Cambridge

The Brewers had won their first three matches of the Sky Bet League One season but went down at the Abbey Stadium, courtesy of a heavy deflection for Sam Smith’s opener and two own goals.

Hasselbaink said: “We didn’t play well. If I look at the performance, forget about the goals, it was not a good performance today.

“They were better. The majority of the time we were second to the balls. They played up to their big man and he gave us a lot of trouble, and from there they played.

“We couldn’t really get a foothold in the game and when we got a foothold we didn’t make a difference. Nevertheless we had the better chances, even though we didn’t play well.

“We need to be clinical but it was one of those days where you don’t perform well and things go against you, because the first goal is offside and it’s an easy offside to see.

“Then there are deflections but I believe you make your own luck. If you’re in the right position, your body shape is right, there shouldn’t be a deflection.

“Today was not our best day of performance, and that’s what I look at. Overall the performance was not as good as we can be, or should be.

“We need to be a little bit more mature. If we are not in the game and we can’t score, they don’t score.”

Mark Bonner felt his Cambridge side fully merited their three points, even taking into the account the nature of their goals.

“I don’t buy that it’s lucky at all,” he said after the game. “We were the better team, we deserved the win, and in the end I felt it was fairly comfortable and controlled. We were very good.

“I think we’ve had a good week, to take four points out of those three games in the last seven days.

“I thought we were really good value for it, the first half had not so much in it and not a lot of quality but in the second half we took good control and looked a good side.

“For everybody in the ground the first win’s always important because the longer you go without it people get anxious, but they needn’t be. We’ve got a good side and in the four games so far we’ve been really competitive.

“I love the way that at the end, when we gave them a couple of chances, we scrambled to try and keep a clean sheet. That’s the sort of mentality you need in your back four.”