'It's hard to defend', admits Calderwood after another Cobblers 'come third in a two-horse race'

Will Evans profited from slack defending at the start of both halves before Jon Russell and Lucas Akins completed another rotten afternoon for Northampton, whose only crumb of comfort came via Cameron McGeehan’s close-range finish.

"We’ve contributed entirely to their first goal and again at the start of the second,” said Calderwood. “It’s really hard to defend that performance and the overall competitiveness of it. We’re getting beat by small margins and we’re getting beat by big margins and we’re a shell of an aggressive team and that really shows when you come up against teams on the front foot like Stockport the other day and Mansfield again today.

"The nature of the first goal is very hurtful because it drops off Jon (Guthrie) and they get through. It’s just a normal ball that we should defend and that hurts you, and then there was a period where we were second for all the contacts and contests and Mansfield just got to too many of them. You have to compete.

"I thought we lacked a bit of energy as well. Mansfield ran hard and they had a physicality that gave them a blueprint for moving forward. We had a bit of individual stuff but we were probably third best in a two-horse race.”