Cobblers ‘not good enough’ in ‘terrible’ first-half, admits skipper Pierre

The Glovers had not won in nine games and were on a run of 13 defeats in 17 ahead of their visit to the PTS, but they found themselves 2-0 ahead after just 25 minutes.

Tristan Abrahams’ penalty, awarded for a foul by Joe Powell, and Jake Gray’s dinked finish put Yeovil on course for a crucial victory - just their second on the road since October - in their battle to avoid the drop.

But Cobblers improved after half-time, helped by visiting defender Omar Sowunmi whose comical own goal was followed by Daniel Powell netting his sixth of the season to make it 2-2, and that’s how it remained until full-time.

“It was a terrible first-half,” conceded Pierre. “We didn’t carry out our game plan properly and conceded two early goals but we had words and knew we had to get back into the game.

“We had to make sure we scored the next goal and we won second balls and we dominated in the final third, but the first-half wasn’t good enough.”

Cobblers defended better in the second-half, particularly during the closing stages when they threw bodies on the line as Yeovil desperately chased the winning goal that would have staved off relegation for at least another week.

“That’s our job,” Pierre added. “We expect ourselves to defend in those situations but we’re a lot more frustrated to have conceded two very poor goals early on.

“We defended better in the second-half so it’s very frustrating that we didn’t keep a clean sheet.”