Curle not interested in possession stats as Cobblers take pride in 'the horrible side of the game' to grind down Fleetwood

Possession is often claimed to be nine-tenths of the law but Keith Curle's Northampton are showing that is not necessarily the case in football following their latest, and possibly best, resolute defensive showing against Fleetwood Town on Tuesday night.

Cobblers have had less of the ball than their opponents in each of the last three matches - far less against Rochdale and Fleetwood in particular - and yet they have emerged from that run of games with seven points from a possible nine, and few would begrudge them such a healthy and valuable return.

At Burton Albion, Town saw 40 per cent of the ball but were worthy 3-1 winners. It was more of a grind against both Rochdale and Fleetwood, having just 27 and 29 per cent possession respectively, but there is a lot to be said for teams that roll their sleeves up and take pride in the art of defending.

After a shaky start to the season, the Cobblers have improved markedly at the back. Curle has got his side well-drilled and well-organised and his defenders are relishing the battle. For all Fleetwood's pretty passing and patient probing on Tuesday, Steve Arnold's only save of the night came from a free-kick.

When you defend so diligently and robustly, all it takes is one moment to go your way at the other end and Cian Bolger's first Cobblers goal, just three minutes into the second-half, capped a textbook Keith Curle performance. Town must expand their game in the long-term but if they continue to defend like this, they will give themselves an excellent chance of not just staying in the division but doing it with room to spare.

"Our attitude in the previous two away games had been excellent and we defended our goal very, very well," said Curle afterwards. "We got people back in behind the ball, we got into the right shape and we pressed and closed down teams away from home where sides are a little bit more expansive.

"We got four points from those two away matches but it was important to have that same mentality and that same mindset going into tonight. We had to defend our goal because they've got some very good players, as they showed with some of the substitutions they brought on.

"We covered every blade of grass and defended our goal very well. They had a lot of possession and a lot of ball retention but I think they only had one shot in the first-half, which Arnie saved, and in the second-half I can't remember him being called into action."

Noses are sometimes turned up at teams happy to cede possession and defend their goal, especially in the modern game, but it is an important part of football. Those who succumb to relegation after often the sides who are loose defensively and concede the highest number of goals, so being solid and tough to beat counts for a lot.

It is now nearly 400 minutes since Cobblers conceded a league goal from open play. Take away Lucas Akins' stoppage-time penalty at Burton and Stephen Humphrys' superb free-kick at Rochdale and you have to go back to the second-minute against Accrington for the last time Northampton's defence was breeched.

"Fleetwood are a good team with some good technicians and they know how to win games, as their recent record proves," Curle added. "But there is another side to football which is sometimes described as the horrible side of the game.

"We take a lot of pride in doing the horrible side of it. You do get some teams who don't want to do that. They don't want to do the tracking back, they don't want to fill in holes and they don't want to compete and put themselves on the line.

"We did that in abundance tonight and we needed to because they're a very good team. Our ball retention and our passages of play won't be in the highlights package and neither will our resolute defending and our willingness and desire to go and block shots, block crosses and defend our goal.

"They don't make headlines and they don't make the news clips but they're invaluable to me and the most important thing is we put the ball in the net - that's worth watching over and over!"