Curle rues 'two lost points' after Cobblers 'got carried away' in Notts County draw

Akin to last week's defeat to Port Vale, Town were both a man and a goal to the good when leading 2-1 after 50 minutes through strikes from Daniel Powell and Sam Hoskins, cancelling out Mitch Rose's superb opener.

But once again the afternoon ended in disappointment as Kane Hemmings equalised for 10-man County, who had goalkeeper Ryan Schofield sent off, two minutes after they fell behind, though at least Town did not lose on this occasion.

"You've definitely got to say it's two points lost given the chances we had and the man advantage we had," admitted Curle. "The second goal against is disappointing.

"We had a man extra and yet they still had a spare man from a throw-in and then the ball comes into the box and they're just able to tap it in three yards out so something's gone wrong somewhere."

Cobblers utterly dominated the final half-hour - as expected - but they missed several excellent opportunities to win it and were ultimately left to rue conceding so quickly after taking the lead.

"You're most vulnerable when you've just scored and it's the same message that's passed on to the players - when you score a goal, get the ball back and go and play in the opposition's half," Curle added.

"They've had the disappointment of conceding a goal and they want to get on the front foot so stop them from doing that and get them on the back foot and keep the ball away from your goal.

"That message doesn't change but people have to start understanding the importance of it to buy into it. Football is all about scoring goals and people get carried away with the emotion.

"We got fortunate with the deflection to go 2-1 up and everyone's excited and everyone's bouncing because the changing room wanted a win, but there's enough old heads in the team and we have to make sure the fundamentals are still in place."