Brady admits over half his team were not at the races for 'lacklustre' Cobblers at Wimbledon

Cobblers boss Jon Brady admitted over half his team were not at the races during Saturday's 'lacklustre' performance in defeat to AFC Wimbledon.

Town, coming off a good win over Oxford United four days earlier, made a steady enough start at Plough Lane but struggled to assert themselves and were pinned back by the hosts for most of the first-half.

They were better in the second 45 minutes but failed to create anything of note before Joe Pigott snatched victory just two minutes from time.

"Obviously I wanted us to create a lot more but we weren't aggressive enough from the front and our distances from front to back were too big," admitted Brady.

"We had to change shape at half-time because we weren't doing what we needed to be done and it was the only way to get us higher up the pitch.

"I felt we dominated the second-half in terms of possession and territory but not in terms of chances. We had a few half chances here and there but our quality in wide areas and our crossing and our decision-making wasn't good enough, that's a fact."

After such a big win against Oxford, Cobblers had the opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the rest at the bottom on Saturday but they limped to defeat, with Sam Hoskins' stoppage-time penalty - saved by Nikola Tzanev - their only shot on target.

"It's hard when you see the energy of Tuesday night and then on Saturday I felt we were quite lacklustre," Brady continued.

"It wasn't through the opposition in my opinion but I felt we started to give them too much respect and gave them too much time and space on the ball and that allowed the to dictate.

"When you have a performance like Tuesday where it's high energy, you just hope it gives them confidence and it's the catalyst to really step up and believe in themselves but I would say only four or five in our team really performed and six looked a bit tight and a bit off it."