Curle responds to angry fans calling for him to be sacked

Manager Keith Curle remains adamant that Cobblers have enough to survive this season despite their alarmingly rapid descent towards the League One relegation zone in recent weeks.

Social media was awash with angry supporters on Tuesday evening following Town's humbling 4-0 loss at Oxford United, comfortably their most disappointing defeat of the season.

An increasing number of fans are frustrated by their side's style of play and inability to get consistent results. The Cobblers did not even manage a shot on target at the Kassam Stadium as they slipped to their third successive defeat.

Asked for his message to angry supporters calling for his head, Curle replied: "I'm not happy either and I know that I take full responsibility for the result because that's my job.

"I won't say it doesn't affect me because it does - I want to win games and I want this football club to survive in the division and keep moving forward.

"To do that, we've got to have players that have that same fight and that same commitment and desire to the club and to the job in hand. It's us and it's a we. I'm part of that changing room as well.

"There will always be negativity because negativity courts company. People would have been disappointed with the 2-0 defeat in the first leg of the play-offs last season and they might have thought it was all over.

"Well, it isn't all over. We've got enough to win games and to keep us in this division. There's a long way to go and a lot of football to be played."

Cobblers dropped another couple of places after the defeat and now sit just one spot above the relegation zone, although Curle believes he has more pressing concerns.

He added: "I'm more concerned about the personnel that was on the pitch at Oxford when we went a goal behind and the manner in which we took a step back. I like playing front-foot football and I like getting after teams.

"We got held at arm's length and we got jabbed and we weren't prepared to release the shackles and take the handbrake off and start having a go at people. We got played around with.

"People can go on about formations and shapes and stuff. Those are the rudimentals of the game. Every team will have their shape and every team will have their identity, but on Tuesday we played without any identity. As soon as the goal went in, we lost our identity."