Hasselbaink '˜concerned' by Cobblers performance in disappointing Pilgrims defeat

Cobblers boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was again left perplexed and despondent by his side's performance after their costly 2-0 defeat at Plymouth Argyle on Tuesday.
BAD NIGHT - the Cobblers players acknowledge the effort of the travelling support at Home Park on Tuesday (Pictures: Kirsty Edmonds)BAD NIGHT - the Cobblers players acknowledge the effort of the travelling support at Home Park on Tuesday (Pictures: Kirsty Edmonds)
BAD NIGHT - the Cobblers players acknowledge the effort of the travelling support at Home Park on Tuesday (Pictures: Kirsty Edmonds)

Going into this game against the second-bottom Pilgrims, Northampton were bidding to immediately bounce back from Saturday’s home defeat to Scunthorpe United and climb back out of the Sky Bet League relegation zone.

But a poor performance soon put paid to those hopes as Sonny Bradley took advantage of some charitable defending to score a goal in each half and earn Argyle only a second home league victory of the season.

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“Disappointing is putting it very lightly,” said a deflated Hasselbaink afterwards.

“We weren’t at the races tonight, especially not in the first-half.

“The weather conditions didn’t help, but it was the same for both sides and they just looked sharper. I’m concerned with how we performed.

“I thought we were very loose in the first-half. Normally we’re not like that, especially after Saturday.

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“We wanted to replicate the first-half on Saturday and there were spells in the second-half when we were a little bit okay, but you need to take your chances as well and we are not taking them.

“That’s a problem and we need to find a way.”

It was the nature of Plymouth’s two goals that would have irritated Hasselbaink as much as anything on Tuesday, with Bradley twice given the space to nod home from close-range.

“Since I’ve been here we’ve been really good at defending set-pieces and those things are very important, they’re the bread and butter,” added Hasselbaink.

“You defend them well and you don’t give those goals away - you make them work hard to score a goal, but for both of those we should have done better.

“Then it stays at 0-0 and you go away with at least a point but if you give those goals away, you’re going to be in trouble.”