Cobblers duo admit players must change their mentality on the pitch

Nicky Adams teed up Jordan Turnbull for his first goal at Morecambe. Picture: Pete Norton

Only 37 minutes were on the clock at Morecambe on Saturday and Turnbull was well on his way to an unlikely hat-trick after heading in Nicky Adams' corner and then finding the bottom corner with a deflected shot.

But, as they did against Crawley Town the previous weekend, the Cobblers failed to convert a two-goal lead into three points as they defended deep and saw Adam Buxton reduce the arrears with a long-range effort before Kevin Ellison scored a dramatic late equaliser.

"I think when the first goal goes in we have the mentality at the moment to drop a bit deeper than normal and that invites pressure," said Turnbull afterwards.

"When the ball is coming into your box like that anything can happen so we need to quickly get into our heads not to do that.

"Maybe we need to think about it and talk about staying higher up the pitch and putting pressure on players that are putting those balls into the box."

Manager Keith Curle insisted afterwards that his team are not under instructions to surrender possession of the ball when defending a lead and says it's up to the players on the pitch to push up.

Adams, who was desperately unlucky to hit the crossbar when Town were 2-0 ahead, added: "Their first goal is a deflection, the second one has pinballed in the box and could have gone anywhere but we've brought that on ourselves by sitting in.

"It was the same as last week when were playing well for 60 or 70 minutes but then we've sit back and anything can happen and it has happened and we've been punished twice."