Captain Mills blames 'naivety' for Cobblers' poor second-half showing against Dale

Cobblers captain Joseph Mills blamed 'naivety' for their 'very disappointing' second-half showing against Rochdale at the weekend.

Locked at one apiece going into half-time, Town came out in the second period hoping to register a third league win from three and a fourth in a row in all competitions.

But instead they were second best to Dale and deservedly beaten, with Josh Andrews and Abraham Odoh scoring the all-important goals.

"I felt we were a bit naive in the way we attacked and we were too gung-ho in pushing men forward," said Mills. "And when you do that, you leave yourself open to the counter-attack, which is what happened with the second goal.

"We were then chasing the game and their third comes from that, but it's very disappointing because it was a game that we wanted to take three points from.

"But there will be lots of twists and turns this season and now we have a quick turnaround before the next game and we will go into that with confidence, especially in front of our own fans at home."

Another member of the back four, Aaron McGowan, was deeply disappointed with how the Cobblers defended Rochdale's key second goal 17 minutes from time.

As with Freddie Sears for Colchester the previous week, a through ball dissected Town's defence and on this occasion Liam Roberts did not come to the rescue, clinically beaten by Andrews.

"We will look back and assess where we went wrong," said McGowan. "I think the second goal is the real killer. The third comes about because we're trying to get an equaliser but the second is a very poor goal to concede.

"A similar incident happened at Colchester when they went through right down the middle of our goal so that's something which needs addressing."

Cobblers were adamant at the time that Andrews was offside, but replays later showed he timed his run to perfection.

"The player was definitely onside, there were no qualms over that, but obviously you try and appeal for everything when you're on the pitch," McGowan added.

"I'm not sure whether we were too high or not, it's difficult to say without seeing it back, but all that I remember was a lad running through one-on-one from 40 yards out in the centre of our goal and that's not good enough."