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But in the end it proved to be a mountain too high as the Shots sadly squandered their half-time lead.
The boss said: “I'm not a great lover of things like ‘the average age of that team was X' they were picked because they were the best players that we had available, and they're expected to earn that shirt in the future. If they want to earn that shirt they best be part of a winning side rather than a losing one,” said Brown.
Without any hopes of a play-off place, Brown has made it clear he is turning his attentions to next season, and hopes that some of these youngsters will help the Shots bounce back next year.
“Hopefully they're all wanting to earn the shirt, I didn't see a particular lack of effort, there's a lack of strength. We had one too many youngsters out there and that's not their fault, circumstances dictated that we pick the strongest possible side that we could and it wasn't good enough on the day.
“It is a learning curve, but they can only learn around senior players, you don't learn much in a team full of youngsters making mistake after mistake, they'll learn more when I get a few of my senior players back,” said Brown.
After a dull first half had seen Leroy Griffiths put the Shots in front, they should have gone on and finished the game off.
But the combination of a determined United side and yet more woeful defending, saw the visitors cruise home to the frustration of boss Brown.
“The second half was disappointing, they deserved to beat us, I've got no problem with that. I never really felt that comfortable at half time with 1-0 with the side we had out today.
“The defending was poor in the second half, we conceded the first straight across the six yard box, the second goal would take the stuffing out of anybody, it didn't please me too much, it was a comedy of errors really and we never really recovered from that.”
Indeed it's a match most will want to forget, not least young keeper Dan Weait, forced into his first senior game, after Bull was taken off at half-time with a thigh strain.
The boss explained: “Last time he did it, it took him yonks to get over, the theory was that if we could get away with this half, he would be fully fit next week for the three games in a week.
“It wasn't a case of being blasé, if we could have kept him on we would have done. It was a baptism of fire as we didn't get the ball out of our half for the first 20 minutes and Dan was peppered with shots so it was difficult for the young keeper to come in.”
It was the Shots who tested first, winning a trio of corners within the first three minutes, but only one resulting in a shot from Kirk Hudson proved any danger.
Scott Howie, the man who broke Shots' hearts saving the penalties for Shrewsbury in the play-off final two seasons ago, was kept busy, spilling a shot from Hudson, although fortunately for them, Matt Bloomer hacked the ball away.
With the Shots commanding play they looked to open the scoring — Ryan Williams delivering a good ball but Ryan Scott just couldn't connect.
A third Ryan, young Mr Crockford, handed his first start with skipper Steve Watson out suspended, drilled a low shot but Howie again blocked.
For Cambridge, Rob Wolleaston shot over the bar in a good position after Fola Onibuje had all too easily got the better of Dave Winfield to square for his team-mate.
On 34 minutes though, the Shots broke the deadlock, a perfect route one goal providing the breakthrough in windy conditions. From Bull's long ball forward, Griffiths nodded down for strike partner Hudson, he in turn squared back for Griffiths to beat Howie at his near post from close range.
Indeed minutes later Griffiths went close to scoring a second, but drilled his effort just wide as the Shots remained narrowly ahead at the break.
The second half was barely two minutes old when Weait was already picking the ball out of his net.
From Jon Brady's corner the Shots failed to clear, allowing Michael Morrison to slam home the equaliser.
Hudson forced another save from Howie as the Shots looked to regain their lead but it the visitors who extended theirs, after calamitous defending.
A harmless free-kick towards the area was left by Matt Somner and Ian Simpemba and with Weait failing to come out and collect it was left to Courtney Pitt to round the keeper and slot into an empty net.
United were now looking to score at every opportunity with the Shots very much on the back foot.
Jamie Guy again got the better of Winfield and eased past Simpemba to slot the ball to sub Craig Westcarr, but his shot was blocked well by Weait.
The killer third came on 75 minutes — a 30 yard screamer from a free kick by Ritchie Hanlon was parried onto the bar by Weait, but the keeper could do nothing as Westcarr was quickest to the rebound to fire home.
Brown switched to three up front for the last 15 minutes, replacing Winfield with Mazin Ahmad and pushing Crittenden forward — and they came close to pulling one back with Williams' effort from Ahmad's ball just wide.
Whilst this is yet another disappointing result, it is worth remembering that this is yet another untested side in the Shots' season, and is almost certainly helping Brown in shaping up for next season.
With thanks to the Aldershot News.