Burroughs admits it's 'hard to ignore' criticism of Cobblers' commitment

Northampton have won just one of their last 20 league games and it is only a matter of time until relegation from League One is confirmed, although they did compete far better in Friday’s narrow loss at Valley Parade.

"It was a lot better than previous weeks,” said Burroughs. “I think we can take pride in the way we fought and on another day we could have picked up a point, or even all three. We just have to dust ourselves down and go again and try and give the fans some belief.

"It feels like everything is going against us. We had a couple of shots blocked on the line in the first five minutes and then they go up the other end and score. We potentially could have stopped the cross and then it’s a free header in the box – it’s not the type of goal we should be conceding.

"But we put in a lot of hard work in the week. We played a friendly against Nottingham Forest and the majority of us were involved, and there’s also been a bit of tactical work. We went to a four against Bradford and we worked on that in training and in the Forest game.

"We’re trying to have clarity in the way we want to play and I felt you could see that. We were a lot smoother, even on a tough pitch, and that’s credit to the work we’ve been doing. It’s obviously not up to the level we need but it’s a step forward.”

With Cobblers on a six-game losing run and surely destined for League Two, Burroughs was asked about the mood in the changing room.

"It’s been tough obviously but we're trying to stay positive,” he explained. “It’s a great group of people in there and we all get on with each other, even in difficult times. When you make a mistake, there’s five or six people ready to put their arm around you.

"It’s been difficult, that’s obvious, but the support doesn’t go unnoticed and the way the fans supported us and clapped us off (at Bradford), it’s not necessarily been that way recently so we really, really appreciate that and it shows they recognise we’re trying to do our best for the club.

"We’re trying to be optimistic and it’s not over until it’s over. We’ll fight until the end and these six games aren’t a write-off. It’s hard to ignore comments when people say we’ve given up and stuff like that. I can speak for myself and for the rest of the group that that’s definitely not the case.

"We want to play as well as we can and we go into every game trying our hardest to win. People are putting their bodies on the line and you can see how much it means to us. That’s one thing that myself and the whole team take pride in – that we never give up.”