Head coach Neil Redfearn has urged his United side to pick themselves up quickly from the defeat at Ipswich and focus getting a response against Fulham on Saturday.

Redfearn’s men raced into a fourth-minute lead at Portman Road through Mirco Antenucci, but Ipswich soon hit back and went on to secure a 4-1 win on a miserable afternoon for the visitors.

United now face Fulham at Elland Road, where they have lost just once since August, and Redfearn sees it as a good opportunity for his players to bounce back.

"This is the first time since I’ve been in charge where I can probably say it hasn’t happened for us and we haven’t played well," said the head coach.

"These things happen in football, you’ve got to pick yourself up and go again.

"We’ve got to raise our performance again and we’ve got to go and play Fulham and get a result against them at home, which we’re more than capable of.

"I think this season is going to be one of those sorts of seasons. It’s a stop-start sort of season.

"It’s in the infancy of its growth. We’ve had a lot of players come together, it’s a very young side.

"The owner is building a side that can hopefully go and challenge so we’ve just got to be tough in this interim period."

United’s away form has been a worry for Redfearn and the head coach admits it is something he is keen to address following his side’s third consecutive defeat on the road.

"It’s not so much pointing things out, it’s answers they need," said Redfearn. "How are we going to solve this?

"We need to solve it because we’ve been in good positions away from home where we’ve gone a goal up and for whatever reason it’s not quite happening.

"We’ve got to really think about this and get over the line. It’s character building.

"There’s a lot of young players in there – Cook, Mowatt, Byram and people like that. They’re going to have to grow with it.

"It’ll make them better players."