Cobblers players 'scathing of themselves' after poor run
Cobblers players have been ‘scathing of themselves’ when assessing their performances, but interim boss Colin Calderwood believes recent results are not a fair reflection of his squad’s application and effort levels.
Town, who return from 12 days without a game when they visit promotion-hunting Bradford City on Good Friday, have lost their last five games in all competitions and were easily brushed aside 4-1 by Mansfield last time out.
"The boys were pretty scathing about themselves after the last game and we have to bring those comments into this week in terms of how we approach training and our attitude and application," said Calderwood.
"There's been a nice bit of competition between the group and a bit of an edge. We're fighting for our lives and our attitude and application has to be there and then we need the outcome to be much better than the last couple of games.”
Given the gloomy overall outlook – with Cobblers now 10 points from safety – Calderwood says the focus has to be on the next game and not the bigger picture.
He added: "We have to address getting a result first and foremost and then see where that leaves us after everyone plays. Easter is always an important stage of the season.
"We could find ourselves in a whole heap of trouble or we could find ourselves moving in the right direction. We have to add a bit of bounce and spirit to the end of the season because we want to finish way better than where we've been in the last three games.
"There’s been too many mistakes so we need to find something that represents the group in a better light, but the points tally and the results in the last few weeks doesn’t represent what the group are doing in terms of how they apply themselves and their demeanour in training.
"It's nowhere near what they actually deserve and what we should get but we have to go against opposition toe-to-toe and come out on the right side.”
Calderwood said he was ‘throwing mud at the wall and seeing what sticks’ after making multiple changes between games before the break, and he’s hinted at further tweaks when Cobblers go to Ethan Wheatley’s Bantams on Good Friday.
He added: "It's a loose term and there's more thought around it than that, there has to be, but we've seen various combinations that have worked in previous games.
"It's what we see in training and there's been some nice relationships in moments, but we just need to have a bit of variation because there's been too many poor results and we have to try something a little bit different."