Curle unfazed by goal drought despite 'disjointed' display in Brackley defeat

A visit to the National League North outfit represented an opportunity to get back in the goals and return to winning ways following 4-0 and 2-0 defeats to Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United respectively.

But it didn't work out that way, instead the Cobblers were beaten by Tendai Daire's second-half strike as they failed to hit the target for a third game running.

"It's like most pre-season games - if you don't score goals, you end up making the evening not an enjoyable occasion," said Curle.

"But I'm not sure you can take Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United, Championship and Premier League teams, and say it's disappointing.

"In the first-half on tonight I think we did more than enough to win two games if we managed to put our chances away.

"The first half-an-hour was a decent contest but after that we became very disjointed and very dismantled in our play and in our thinking. This is no disrespect to Brackley but it can sometimes become a little bit too easy and the basics aren't there.

"We started the game well, getting the ball in wide areas, getting it to Nicky Adams and putting the ball into the box and we were causing them problems.

"But then everyone else wants to join in and everybody goes into false positions and it becomes a horrible night for everybody.

"It was disappointing to lose the game but we created enough chances to win two games."