Boss Curle: Players will leave Cobblers if they don't '˜adjust'

Curle was critical of his side for their efforts after Saturday’s game, pinpointing poor decision-making in particular during a thoroughly disappointing second-half performance as Northampton dropped two points at home to a team fighting relegation and who had lost three away games running.

Although progress has clearly been made over the past few weeks, there’s still a long way for the Cobblers and Curle to go until they are capable of launching a sustained promotion challenge in League Two, either through the play-offs or automatically.

He will be expected to make signings in January when he gets his first chance to dip into the transfer market as Northampton manager, but there could also be outgoings as Curle attempts to reshape and remodel the squad to fit his requirements.

“At the minute I’m still finding out about some of the players because some of the fundamentals are there and they have key attributes, individually, that are very good, but it’s getting them to perform and understand what’s needed at what particular time within game situations,” he said.

“You don’t fall out. It’s just a case that, if players don’t adjust, they will have to go on a different journey.”

Curle has now had 12 games and almost two months to assess his squad, playing a variety of formations and making regular changes between matches during that time.

“That (assessing players) is what I’ve been doing,” he added. “I’ve had an opportunity to assess players in different formations, in different systems, in different circumstances and facing different challenges and overall there has been a lot of positives.

“There are some players who have shown me things that I think ‘yes, I can use that’ and there are players that you give an opportunity, then you give them another opportunity and then you come to January and feel they might fit someone else’s puzzle but not mine.”