Hasselbaink laments 'worst half' since his arrival in Cobblers defeat at Rotherham

Kieffer Moore's goal seven minutes after the restart was all that separated the sides on a day when chances came in abundance.

Most were created by the home side but poor finishing, good Matt Ingram goalkeeping and some last-ditch defending kept them at bay, while Dean Bowditch, Daniel Powell and Matt Grimes all missed chances at the other end.

The defeat drops Hasselbaink's side to 22nd in Sky Bet League One, and the Town boss said afterwards: "It wasn't hugely disappointing.

"I think in the first-half we were good and there were certain chances that we gave away that we should have done better with, a lot better, but we created chances ourselves.

"I think we should score but they would say the same in the first-half and I was not happy with the second-half."

Elaborating further on the second-half, when United spurned a host of chances to make the game safe, Hasselbaink continued: "That was the worst half since I've been here.

"We were second all the time, we let the ball bounce in front of us, we didn't deal with Moore, they were smarter and always first to the second ball and from that they can play.

"That got us in trouble. We were too lose and that's not what I want my team to be and it was disappointing.

"I thought we were excellent against MK Dons and today in patches we were OK but second-half we were way under-par and I expected more."