Curle and Cobblers still 'buzzing' to be in the promotion race

Town were closing in on the automatic promotion positions before back-to-back defeats against Port Vale and Swindon Town stalled their progress and dropped them to sixth place, just a point inside the play-off zone.

Those home losses have increased the significance of tomorrow's trip to Walsall, however Curle says the mood around the place is still very positive.

"I think the obvious thing to say is that we need to win games," he said. "I take onboard that we've had back-to-back defeats and nobody wants that, especially at home, but we're in a very good position.

"We're sixth in the league and eight points off automatic promotion with plenty of games left to play and we've got a very competitive squad with options available.

"Had we won the last two games and moved up to sixth, everybody would be buzzing, but myself and the staff are still buzzing."

Despite eventually succumbing to defeat, Curle took positives out of his side's performance against the table-topping Robins on Tuesday.

"We know we're a work in progress and we've still got work to do," he added. "But we gave Swindon, who are top of the league, a very good game and the pleasing thing is we didn't change our mindset.

"A lot of teams going up against Swindon will try and defend and have a defensive mentality but we don't change our way because we want to score goals, we want to create chances and on another day it might have been different because their goalkeeper made three match-winning saves.

"That shows we're creating chances against a good team and it was the same against Port Vale because statistically everything was in our favour apart from putting the ball in the net.

"We know how we play. We will get forward and we will get opportunities for players to score."