Curle plays down Cobblers' impressive record against high-flying opponents

Town's three league wins this season have come against Swindon Town, Plymouth Argyle and Newport County, three teams that were in good form and occupied either first or second place at the time of kick-off.

But failure to make the most of their other five fixtures, taking just one point from those games, has them sitting 14th in the Sky Bet League Two table, four points behind the play-offs.

Cobblers can put that right against bottom-of-the-table and winless Stevenage at the Lamex Stadium on Tuesday night, but Curle says it's too early in the campaign to read too much into who sits where.

"The league table doesn't balance out until 16 games and then you'll find out the top, the middle and the bottom of the table," he said.

"At the minute we're taking every challenge as it comes each week and different games present different challenges.

"In all the games we've been competitive and there's not a lot in this division, but there's an honesty and a willingness from the players and we've got that in our changing room."

Sam Hoskins, who scored Town's second against Newport on Saturday, was also asked for his view on the matter, adding: "We go into every game with the same mindset of wanting to win.

"Football isn't as simple as that but we've proved this season that we can match and dominate the teams that are up there.

"We've shown we can be up there ourselves but now we look to Stevenage on Tuesday and want to get three points away from home to prove we can beat teams that are down at the bottom as well."