'Annoyed' Wharton insists Cobblers do not have a mental weakness

An 'annoyed' Scott Wharton says Cobblers do not have a 'mental weakness' when defending a lead after they relinquished a two-goal advantage for the third time this season.
Scott WhartonScott Wharton
Scott Wharton

Town's latest collapse from 2-0 up, suffered at Oldham Athletic on Saturday, was arguably the toughest to take so far after Matty Warburton's early opener was added to by Andy Williams with just 10 minutes left to play.

The visitors seemed destined for a fourth straight 2-0 victory but Scott Wilson pounced on a loose header with four minutes to go and then Jonny Smith's deflected cross salvaged a dramatic point.

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"The mood in the changing room is frustration and to concede a couple of late goals like that is annoying," admitted Wharton. "It's happened three times now where we've been 2-0 up.

"We've just got to learn from it because realistically we should be six points better off - where would that put us in the league? It's frustrating and we've got to stop it from happening and learn."

Having also given up 2-0 leads against Crawley and Morecambe this season, some were questioning whether or not it has become a mental issue for the Cobblers.

"It's not mental weakness," insisted Wharton. "If you look at the two goals on Saturday, you could say they were lucky but that's no excuse - we've got to be able to see games out better and that's what we need to work on.

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"It's a long season and games are coming thick and fast. We'll stick together as a group and at times on Saturday I thought we looked really good, especially first-half.

"We passed the ball around really well and then Willo scored a great goal in the second-half and we could easily have scored a third so there are plenty of positives to take - we've just got to learn from it."