Hogg felt Cobblers lacked 'belief' and 'played not to lose' against Latics
Cobblers boss Chris Hogg sensed a lack of ‘belief’ from his players and felt they ‘played not to lose’ during Tuesday’s disappointing 1-0 home defeat to Oldham Athletic.
After eight points from the previous five games and several improved performances, Cobblers appeared to be building some momentum and confidence prior to hosting the Latics at Sixfields.
But they never really got going in a game that was desperately devoid of quality and excitement, with Ollie Norburn’s second half winner bringing an abrupt halt to Town’s decent form.
"It's one that keeps you up at night, especially the first half,” admitted Hogg. “There were better signs in the second half with how we built through and around them and for a 15-minute spell we were looking more of a threat.
“Then we're hit with the sucker-punch and we didn't have enough to get back into it. It's the belief. We had belief at Accrington where we rescued a point but I didn't feel we had that belief last night and we've reflected on that and we know we need to do better.
"Football is about confidence and belief and emotional control. You have to have that inner steel to trust yourself in key moments and have composure to bring your strengths to the game. There were flashes of that but definitely not enough.
"It was a disappointing night. I was hoping for a response but we just never did that. There was lots not to enjoy about the performance and there were elements we can cling to a little bit and do more of that. We got into good areas but it's the same thing about being ruthless and scoring goals at key times.”
After beating Colchester United last weekend, Hogg praised the way his team ‘played to win’ - but the opposite was the case on Tuesday.
"We have to build a winning mentality,” he added. “We have shown signs of that at times but this is another step back and you probably saw an environment in the stadium and a team on the pitch who played a game not to lose rather than playing to win. That mindset is something I've spoken about before.
"We have to go to York at the weekend and play to win. It's a cup tie and we want to go through. Our mentality is to do that every game. It's difficult to reproduce it week on week, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday but I'm more than confident that we'll go there and show a response.”