Curle happy with Cobblers performance but frustrated by two avoidable goals

Keith Curle was happy with his side's performance but admitted both Charlton goals were entirely avoidable after their fourth defeat in five league games on Saturday.

Cobblers were the brighter side in the first-half and continued to largely frustrate Charlton in the second bar for a sloppy five-minute spell.

Darren Pratley scored from a corner that should never have been and then Jack Sowerby's own goal came from a Cobblers attack.

"I'm always going to be disappointed when we haven't won or got something out of the game because we're in it to win games and compete," said Curle.

"I thought today we did compete very well, not just in the first-half but overall. You only have to look at their team sheet to see the quality they have but we restricted them to two opportunities, neither of which were earned by them.

"The first goal, we've got to have better craft in our defending and worst-case, put the ball out for a throw-in because a corner is always going to give them a chance to put quality in the box and Ryan Inniss is a threat in both boxes - he defended his own box very well.

"For the second goal, we have a chance to get the ball in the box with a long throw but we take the option of taking it short and dollying a cross into the area and that's something we didn't want to do.

"We worked on putting balls with pace into the box because they have two big centre-halves and a goalkeeper who will come out and catch the ball, but we chose not to do that and they were able to break."