Adaptability is key for Curle as he wants Cobblers to cover all bases after contrasting Swindon display

Keith Curle wants the Cobblers to develop the ability to both 'blow teams away' and also show 'good game management' when the going gets tough after Tuesday's performance of two halves against Swindon Town.

Curle's men produced their best half of the season - certainly in an attacking sense - during the first 45 minutes at the PTS and created a number of chances, with Christopher Missilou and Danny Rose both on target.

It then turned into a rearguard action in the second-half when Swindon dominated possession and had Town retreating backwards, but Tyler Smith's penalty was all the visitors had to show for their efforts.

The stats back that up as Cobblers had 45 per cent possession and nine shots in the first-half compared to just 27 per cent possession and five efforts in the second, with Swindon's spot-kick their only attempt on target after half-time.

Asked which half satisfied him most, the attacking verve of the first or the dogged defending of the second, Curle said he was just pleased that his side had done both sides of the game.

"I want to win games and ideally I want to blow teams away and come into half-time having scored three or four, which we could have done on Tuesday," he said.

"If things are going well, excellent. Let's exploit that. But at the same time, when things aren't quite going so well and we're not finding that extra pass and passes are not hitting the right areas, we need to have that side to us that says 'right, let's camp in, we need to get behind the ball, we need to deny shots and deny crosses'.

"We don't want to panic by the opposition having possession if they're playing backwards and playing square and sidewards and not playing penetrating passes.

"Make sure you're blocking space and blocking passing lines and you say to the opposition 'yes, you might have possession but you're not going to hurt us' and it's having that mentality as a group.

"If you have that foundation and that base to build from, very quickly we can build play, we can counter-attack and we can be more dominant with the ball."

Curle was pleased with the defensive aspect of Town's display on Tuesday but not so much in possession of the ball, especially after half-time.

"That was the downside on Tuesday because when we kept our defensive shape well and we got the ball back, we didn't use it well enough," he added. "We gave it away too cheaply and we weren't brave enough to take that extra pass and move them around and work our way back up the pitch.

"No game is going to be perfect but having both sides in your armoury is very important. There'll be games when we go out and attack and we'll go 2-0 or 3-0 up and when a game needs to be managed, we manage it.

"It's not all about attacking and causing teams problems, there has to be another side to us and we need to do the extra mileage that's needed. Sometimes that'll be centre-forwards chasing back full-backs.

"If we can have that mentality where the forwards are working hard and keeping the ball going sideways and backwards, it means we can keep our shape and that knocks on to the defenders.

"That was shown on Tuesday. Yes, they had good possession, but not in areas that drastically hurt us and the defenders were quite comfortable."