Curle confirms players were dropped from Cobblers squad for trip to Burton

Cobblers boss Keith Curle confirmed he made the decision to take one or two players 'out of the firing line' for Saturday's Sky Bet League One fixture at Burton Albion.

Curle rang the changes for his side's trip to the Pirelli Stadium, making five in all from the midweek draw with Stevenage. Ricky Holmes and Caleb Chukwuemeka made their first league starts of the season while Shaun McWilliams, Harry Smith and Mark Marshall also all returned.

Danny Rose and Nicky Adams remained unused substitutes but Ryan Watson, who had started nine of Town's 12 league games this season, did not even make the squad. Ricky Korboa, Joe Martin and Luka Racic were also not involved.

Curle confirmed afterwards that there were no injuries involved and his selection decisions were based on recent form, as well as the opposition. He will feel justified too given Town's excellent 3-1 victory over the struggling Brewers.

"It's important to talk about the players who were involved in the starting line-up and on the bench in a good win for us," Curle said afterwards. "But there will be probably be more personnel changes within the 18 on Tuesday because I make decisions based on information that I gather through the week on players' physical, mental and emotional state.

"Sometimes it's about taking players out of the firing line and putting them back in to recreate that hunger. If a player hasn't played well for a couple of games, they might need a breather to compose themselves and realise what they're good at and what they bring to the team as an individual.

"Sometimes the best way to do that is to come out of it. I was different as a player, I needed to play week in week out and if I made a mistake, I wanted to be out there to rectify it.

"Other players need to have that distance so they can analyse their own performances and evaluate the team's performances and focus on what they bring to the team."

Curle also tweaked the shape at Burton, going to one man up front in Smith with Caleb Chukwuemeka and Ricky Holmes both deployed as number 10s.

However, despite his side's success at the Pirelli, Curle will not necessarily stick with the same approach when they go to Rochdale on Tuesday.

"It's based on the opposition," he added. "I've not seen Rochdale's footage from their game on Saturday but we'll look at it and we'll see if we revert back to two up front now that there's a little more confidence in the group after an away win."