Curle warns players to learn from 'smack in the face' - or risk being dropped

In both matches the Cobblers conceded an injury-time equaliser after letting slip a 2-0 lead with only 20 minutes left to play.

The result at Morecambe on Saturday was especially frustrating as Town failed to put right the mistakes which led to the previous week's draw against Crawley.

Curle is working with 15 new players so patience was always going to be required at the start of this season, however he won't be shy to make changes should they keep repeating the same mistakes.

"We're learning as a group and sometimes you learn by getting a smack in the face and it's about how you accept that smack in the face," said Curle.

"If you turn the other cheek like we did, you'll get smacked again. No, you get up and you say 'right, we know where we're designed to play and now we need to do it and do it with more quality'.

"We haven't got a blame culture. Missing chances, not closing people down... we're learning and what we do is we learn and people get on board - or they find themselves learning by watching and not playing."

The fact Town have so regularly found themselves in a winning position is clearly encouraging, although it ultimately means little if they keep throwing away points.

"Last two games we've gone 2-0 up so the signs are there but there's still lots of work to go into this squad and we have players still to come back in, which will make us stronger," Curle added.

"The shape of the team and the understanding of the team, the rewards are there to see, but what we need to do now is make sure we see games out and seeing games out is not seeing deep, it's playing in the opposition's half."