Holmes demands Cobblers 'man up' after admitting they were 'battered' by Crewe

Ricky Holmes has demanded Cobblers 'stand up and be counted' during a forthright interview in the aftermath of Saturday's last-gasp 2-1 defeat at Crewe Alexandra.

Town were beaten by Ryan Wintle's crushing stoppage-time strike at Gresty Road but in truth the scoreline did not reflect Crewe's superiority. The hosts finished with 75 per cent possession and racked up 17 more shots than their visitors.

It all came after Holmes handed Cobblers the dream start with a third-minute opener. But instead of kicking on from there, Keith Curle's side dropped too deep and allowed Crewe to dictate almost the entire game, even before Joe Martin's second-half red card.

Holmes, an experienced campaigner, didn't mince his words during his post-match interview at Gresty Road as he admitted Town's performance had not been up to scratch.

"I said in the changing room afterwards - yes, they are a ball-playing team but it's Crewe Alexandra," said the 33-year-old. "The way we played, I expect us to play like that against an Arsenal or something.

"We've got to man up and make decisions for ourselves collectively because you can't do it individually and go on your own. You've got to do it as a team.

"We set up to let their left-sided centre-half to have the ball but that didn't mean he could get over the halfway line and hurt us and attack us. That's got to come within.

"The gaffer can't kick every ball for us. It's time to stand up and be counted because even if we came off with a 1-1 draw, we can't be happy with that. They could have scored six or seven. They battered us, battered us, even without the 10 men, so we need to address it.

"We've got a tough game on Tuesday against another team that keeps the ball well so we've got to find it within ourselves to come up with the answers."

Cobblers did take a more positive approach to games at the start of the season but struggled to turn it into results. Indeed, the only game in which Town have had more possession than the opposition this season - against Portsmouth - they succumbed to their heaviest defeat of the campaign.

"We did it at the start of the season and got beat a few times but now we've got to find the balance of playing from a shape and hurting teams," Holmes added.

"I don't think we had a shot after the goal. Fraser (Horsfall) had an effort and it was a good effort but it was a half a chance and that's all I can remember. You're not going to hold on in every game like that.

"We've got to find a way of getting the balance right by being solid and also hurting teams going the other way."