Boss Page happy with point, but admits Cobblers have plenty of work to do

The game at Boundary Park followed a similar pattern to Northampton’s previous two away matches at Barnsley and then Charlton when they showed plenty defensive resolve but were toothless in attack.

Page knows his side must improve if they are to challenge at the right end of the table this season but, at the same time, he was content with a point away from home.

He said: “I was more pleased with Saturday’s point at Charlton than tonight.

“There are aspects of our game that we need to improve on, as I said on Saturday, but we won’t and can’t keep saying that and it’s a point on the road.

“We’ve got to win our home games and picking up points on the road and we’re doing that at the moment.

“We’ve addressed the aspects we need to improve on in the changing room but I thought it was another workmanlike performance and they were excellent defensively.

“We were hard to break down tonight and we had to be because I watched Oldham play Walsall and they outplayed them in many parts of the game.

“We knew we were in for a tough test but we’ve come away with a well-earned point.”

Aside from an early Alex Revell chance, Northampton barely created anything of note as they barely troubled Connor Ripley in the home goal in a disjointed attacking performance.

“We need to work on our decision-making,” admitted Page.

“We had a great free-kick in the box in the first 15 minutes which dropped to Revs and on another day that goes into the back of the net.

“It didn’t drop for us that time and then second-half we knew opportunities were going to be limited so we had to be punish them when we broke but our decision-making on the ball and our final pass let us down.

“When you come away from home, to pick up points you have to be ruthless but we weren’t quite there tonight.”