Frustration but encouragement in equal measure for Curle after late Crawley draw

Town were just seconds away from making it three successive home wins after Chris Lines and Shaun McWilliams had scored their first goals for the club.

But Ashley Nathaniel-George came off the bench to halve the deficit and that gave Crawley the impetus to go on and snatch a point, which came courtesy of Cobblers defender Joe Martin after an untidy scramble in the penalty box.

Whilst evidently frustrated by how the game ended, Curle chose to focus on the positives with his side having taken seven points from nine over the past week.

"It feels like a defeat but, as a collective, I think it's important to look at the last week as a whole because it's been very good for us," he said.

"Obviously there's a sense of frustration because you go 2-0 up at home and look quite comfortable and then up drawing the game.

"Crawley are an attacking threat and they've scored a goal in every game this season but I thought we had a good foothold in the game.

"Our game management in the last 10 minutes could have been better but we were an attacking threat and we looked dangerous from set-pieces.

"I think if the second penalty had gone in it would have deflated them because it came at the right time, but we kept going though and stuck to our beliefs and it was an excellent goal from Shaun McWilliams."