Cornell unable to explain Cobblers' inability to ram home advantage

The team were at it again on Easter Monday, losing 3-1 at promotion hopefuls Bury after taking a 27th-minute lead through Andy Williams’ diving header.

On Saturday, Town wrap up their home campaign with a clash against relegation-haunted Yeovil (ko 3pm).

In the reverse fixture back in December, the Cobblers took a 1-0 lead after 88 minutes, with Williams again the scorer, and still managed to draw the game, with Yeovil equalising 60 seconds later.

Losing a lead is something that has occurred with disappointing regularity over the past nine months.

Indeed, the Cobblers have lost more than 20 points from winning positions this season, and when you look at the league table and see Town are just nine points off the play-off places going into the final two games of the campaign, it highlights how costly those slips have been.

One player who has had the perfect view of all those lapses has been goalkeeper David Cornell.

The Welshman has played every minute of every Sky Bet League Two match this season, but he admits he is at a loss to explain why the Cobblers can’t hold on to a lead on a more consistent basis.

And he admits it is something he and the rest of the squad need to cut out of their game if they are to mount a serious promotion charge next season.

“I don’t know why that is the case to be honest,” said Cornell, when asked about the Cobblers dropping so many points from leading positions.

“Maybe it’s switching off, but obviously it’s a lot of points to have missed out on.

“We were only speaking before the match how, had we won the game and other results went our way, we’d have only been five or six points off the play-offs.

“As a team, as a whole, we haven’t been great and yet we could only have been six points off, so it’s disappointing that we’ve ended up mid-table.

“We’ve dropped a lot of points from winning positions, but next season we’ve got to be wanting a challenge and turn those draws into wins.

“We probably need to win more games 1-0 like good teams do.”