Curle backs Racic and Ashley-Seal to improve with more games

Cobblers boss Keith Curle says striker Benny Ashley-Seal and centre-back Luka Racic will only improve the more they play this season.

Ashley-Seal made his Cobblers debut against AFC Wimbledon at the weekend and he produced an encouraging performance before being withdrawn on the hour-mark.

"Benny's a young man that's got a very, very bright future in the game," said Curle. "There's lots of little bits of craft that we need to bring into his game but that's the same for other players.

"I'm very pleased and we know there's more to come from the lad."

It was more of a struggle for Brentford loanee Racic in defence as Town's back three had their issues with Wimbledon's forward play, particularly in the first-half.

"Luka Racic is another player that has all the raw ingredients that we need but he needs to develop that craft that we want and an understanding of his decision-making," Curle added.

"Your decision-making when you play in a back four is different to the decisions you make in a back four so we need to get that understanding.

"You get that right by playing games, by training and by working, developing and listening and learning and then making good decisions."

Cobblers overcame their defensive issues to pick up an opening-day point on Saturday as Matty Warburton and Ricky Korboa were both on target.

"We showed good character and good belief to come back from a goal behind twice and I was very pleased for Ricky to get his goal and also for Matty Warburton," continued Curle.

"He's somebody that does work a lot on those free-kicks and the execution of the goals we scored were very good but the execution of the goals we conceded were disappointing.

""There are a lot of things we can still work on, for sure."