Cobblers face 'long and challenging season' as Curle prioritises League One survival above all else

Cobblers manager Keith Curle will make no apology for prioritising League One survival above all else this season following Monday's premature exit from the FA Cup.

The Town boss used the first-round tie at Oxford City as an opportunity to rest some of his first-team regulars and give game-time to those players on the fringes of the squad.

Alan Sheehan, Cian Bolger and Jack Sowerby were rested from the squad completely, Nicky Adams and Ryan Watson remained unused substitutes, while Harry Smith, Danny Rose and Ricky Holmes only came on in the second-half.

Cobblers’ FA Cup campaign came to an abrupt end as they were embarrassed by non-league opposition, however Curle was adamant that it was the right decision to rotate due to the importance of staying in League One this season.

“I won’t get away from the fact that prioritising the league this year is not a crime,” he said. “If you have a look at the games we’ve got coming up, there’s a lot of Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday.

“I think it’s 13 games in two months and as a football club we need to maintain our status in League One this season. We fought extremely hard and we did a lot of work as a football club to achieve promotion last season.

“We’re going to need to put in the same amount of hard work to make sure that we stay in the division next season. Are we prioritising the league? Yes, I am. Because that is an achievement this season.”

Some supporters may have had higher expectations coming into the season than simply avoiding relegation, but Curle believes that would constitute a successful campaign for a variety of reasons, mainly due to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

“With the good housekeeping that we’ve shown and the difficult financial situation that football is in, we’ve kept our house in order and we have got to prioritise the league this season,” he added.

“A lot of effort and a lot of commitment went into the football club being promoted and we will need to replicate that to stay in the division this season.

“It will be a long season and a challenging season but we need to make sure that the people who are onboard perform when they get an opportunity. ”