Curle admits he had to 'compose' himself after Town's contentious late defeat to Crewe

Cobblers boss Keith Curle admitted he had to take some time to 'compose' himself to avoid getting into trouble after his side's contentious stoppage-time defeat at Crewe Alexandra on Saturday.

Ricky Holmes diverted a Sam Hoskins cross on just three minutes but Owen Dale equalised shortly after half-time before Joe Martin was controversially given his marching orders for a second yellow card.

It was backs to the wall after that but Town couldn't hold out, cruelly defeated in stoppage-time by Ryan Wintle's 94th-minute strike.

"I apologise for the delay in coming out and speaking to the press," said Curle. "I was trying to compose myself and find the right words that don't get me in trouble and detract away from the effort that the players put into the game.

"I thought it was a very committed performance but the red card obviously disrupts us. I've spoken to the referee and he was courteous enough to give me his time, which I appreciate."

On the game itself, Curle said: "We had a gameplan and I thought for the first 35, 40 minutes, that gameplan was working very well but just before half-time, they got on top, moved us around well and created overloads in wide areas.

"We didn't react quickly enough and we settled back into a shape that made me feel uncomfortable because they were finding too many holes whereas before we committed to filling those holes.

"Joe gets sent off but the towel wasn't thrown in and we still competed. The first goal is miss-hit and the second is disappointing because it's half an inch away from us being able to get a clearance on it."