Foley: My contribution means nothing if Cobblers don't win

The 32-year-old broke his duck for the season on New Year’s Day when capping a superb individual performance with Town’s equalising goal against Forest Green Rovers.

The goal was no more than he deserved for a fine all-round display in midfield, but unfortunately it was not enough to earn a deserved away point as Theo Archibald’s injury-time winner grabbed the victory for Rovers.

And despite playing so well, Foley was left deflated by the result. “My contribution means nothing really because we haven’t got anything from the game,” he said. “I need to try and keep my form up now and hopefully that will have a positive impact on my team-mates.”

Foley, despite being one of Town’s better performers this season, had fallen victim to Keith Curle’s rotation policy when dropped from the team for games against MK Dons and Swindon prior to the trip to Forest Green.

“We’ve got a good squad and good players here so no one is guaranteed to play every week,” said the midfielder. “Sometimes it has a good effect on players who drop out the team and sometimes it has a negative effect.

“It’s the manager’s job to work out who needs what and which players need to play and which players don’t. He’s working on it and we’ve got to keep faith in the team he picked and, if you’re in it, you have to try and stay in it.

“Obviously I’m disappointed when I don’t play because I want to play every game but I’ll support my team-mates and help them as much as I can.

“Helping them on the pitch is a lot easier than helping them off it but, if I’m not playing, I’m behind them 100 per cent.”

Curle admits his approach is ‘different’ to other managers. “I am slightly different and I do ask different questions,” he said.

“When you first come into a club, you pick up certain personality traits from certain people and you can see some things in some players and then you have to set them challenges to see if they can progress, can they develop and can they improve.”