Players' reaction to going behind was 'interesting' - Hogg
Cobblers manager Chris Hogg said it was ‘interesting’ to watch the reaction of his players after they fell behind to Crewe on Saturday.
Having looked comfortable and in control for much of the first half, Town found themselves under pressure in the early stages of the second period before conceding to Josh March’s somewhat comical goal on 54 minutes.
The away side struggled to muster much of a response for the next 15 minutes and only applied pressure late on, but by that point it was too little, too late and Crewe held on for victory.
"We lost our way after the goal,” admitted Hogg. “It was interesting for me to stand there and look at the reaction of our players. That 15-minute spell is something we have to eradicate from our performance and we can't let those spells to happen.
"We had good control in the first half and there were some OK things without an end product. I learned things that will help going forward but you can't afford spells like that in a football game.
"You can be great for 70 minutes but if you have a 20-minute period where you're not at it, you get punished. The way we conceded the goal sparked the home crowd and their energy went up and we couldn't wrestle back the momentum. We had some good words about it afterwards and it's something we definitely need to improve.”
Defender Elliott Moore agreed with his manager, adding: "It was two different halves. I thought we had it under control in the first half, we created the better chances and we had a few efforts, but a 15-minute spell at the second half killed us and ultimately lost us the game.
"It was a disappointing goal to give away and a disappointing game to lose but we learn and we move on. We’re definitely making good progress and we can’t get too high or too low.”