Curle: Cobblers are not as competitive as we want to be

Cobblers boss Keith Curle admits the focus on making sure the club is financially stable following the coronavirus pandemic has meant they are 'not as competitive as we want to be' on the pitch.

Northampton, like many other clubs, have been hit hard by the pandemic and continue to suffer a significant shortfall in income with the vast majority of matches since March played behind closed doors.

Just over 1,000 fans did return for the last home game against Doncaster Rovers and around 2,000 are expected to attend tomorrow's visit of Lincoln City. Nonetheless, the club continue to lose money and have therefore had to 'adjust' their budgets to ensure they remain as stable as possible. Chairman Kelvin Thomas admitted the financial picture was 'not pretty' back in August.

"It's not straightforward but we've obviously adjusted our budgets," said Thomas at the time. "We've got what we would call a typical League One budget in terms of where we would usually be. We're some way off in terms of income that's coming into the club but we've got an adjusted budget which we'll be working towards."

Cobblers have lost three matches in a row and languish just a point above the League One drop zone. Speaking at Friday's pre-match press conference, Curle said: "A lot of work goes on at this football club to make sure we're in a good place financially.

"With that, there comes a downside whereby we might not be able to have the quality that other teams have got.

"But there's stability here and the structure of the club is in a very good place. The downside is that we're not as competitive as we want to be but the journey we're on and the timing we're at, we're in a good place as a structure."

But the financial situation at the club did not excuse Town's awful performance in defeat to Oxford United on Tuesday. Curle is desperate to see a response from his players against Lincoln City this weekend - and throughout the rest of the season.

"Whoever is in the changing room at this football club representing the football department, we're in a fight," he said. "From now until the end of the season, we're in a fight to maintain our survival in this division and maintain the upward curve at the football club.

"To do that, you've got to be ready to fight. That's got to be a given and it means you have to cover every blade of grass and you're going to do the horrible side of the game and you're going to do everything asked of you with and without the ball.

"You've got to have an aggression about you and you've got to have a determination and belief that you'll go out onto that pitch and you're going to give everything, for yourself as an individual, for your family, for the club and for the wages you get paid.

"That's got to be a minimum and we didn't have enough players that could come off the pitch and say that they gave everything and they won their battles. We lost too many battles (on Tuesday)."