Dejected Northampton midfielder admits it's a 'depressing place to be' after another defeat

Callum Wright’s smart finish, Jon Guthrie’s own goal and Will Aimson’s late effort consigned Cobblers to a seventh straight defeat, leaving them 13 points from safety with only 15 points available. In desperate need of a good start to establish a foothold in the game, Town were outplayed by Wigan in the opening 15 minutes and promptly found themselves behind.

"The first half is not good from us at all,” reflected Campbell. “I don’t know why we came out so flat. We changed a few things at half-time and we had a bit more of a go in the second half and played more in their half, but they sat off us and allowed us to have more possession.

"We gave ourselves a chance with the goal but we have to stay in it for longer and I hold my hands up because I lost my man at the corner and that’s killed the game off and stopped any chance of getting something.

"It’s just really frustrating because none of us want to be in this position, we’re proud professionals who don’t like losing, but it’s happening far too often and it’s three sloppy goals again.

“They carved us open for the first one and then it’s two set-pieces. It’s not as if Burgey had heaps to do and they were peppering our goal all game. It’s just us switching off at key moments and that’s been the case too often this season, and then when you go behind in games, it’s a lot harder to get back into it.”

It’s now eight points from a possible 63 since Christmas, a remarkable collapse that has everyone scratching their heads.

"I really wish I could pinpoint where it’s gone wrong because then we could turn it around,” Campbell added. “We’ve tried lots of different things, different shapes and different personnel, but nothing is coming off for us. We’re clearly lacking confidence, we’re not creating enough chances and we’re not keeping the ball out of our net enough and if you keep conceding sloppy goals, you’ll lose a lot of matches.”

Cobblers are suffering from a severe shortage of belief but that doesn't wash with Campbell, who insists there’s still plenty to play for regardless of the inevitability of relegation.

"We’re professionals so that’s not an excuse,” he added. “People are coming to watch us and we owe it to them and we owe it to our families and to ourselves and our team-mates to work hard and play better. It’s a depressing place to be at the moment and fans have every right to criticise us but there’s still so much at stake and we have pride to play for.

"There’s players out of contract and the players under contract need to stake their claim, and there’s loan players who need to impress so there’s still lots to play for regardless of how far out of it we look right now. We can’t just turn up for the last five games and go through the motions because we owe it to everyone else to have a bit of pride and try and get a win.

"We’ll keep fighting. I know it looked like there wasn’t a lot of fight in the first half, and I don’t know why we started so slowly, but we have to keep going and hope the tide turns and bring a bit of positivity back to the place. It would be nice to give the fans something to smile about going into the summer – that’s the least we owe them.”