'It's rubbish!' - Adams admits Cobblers are missing their fans

Cobblers club captain Nicky Adams believes the absence of supporters is having a detrimental effect on his side as they continue to struggle this season, saying it is 'rubbish' playing without crowds.

The season was always going to start behind closed doors due to the coronavirus pandemic but it had been hoped that some fans would be allowed into grounds from the start of October.

However, a sharp rise in the number of COVID cases has delayed the return of supporters indefinitely, which means all 'elite' level matches must be played behind closed doors.

And it seems the Cobblers are struggling without their supporters following a fourth defeat in seven home games on Saturday when they were beaten 1-0 by Accrington Stanley.

"I've said it before but having no crowd in the ground is rubbish," said Adams. "There's no point beating around the bush, it's terrible. I don't know what else to say.

"It's a game of football and you want to play in front of crowds, I'm sick of saying it. I don't know what the authorities are doing about it but we needed a crowd on Saturday because we were playing against a good team.

"The fans would have pushed us on and given us a bit of belief at times and there's been a few other games like that this season. Who's sorting it out? No-one knows. But hopefully they'll be back soon and we can get back to some proper football."

Nonetheless, it is the same for clubs up and down the country and Adams knows that his side must improve, with or without fans, following two bitterly disappointing defeats in the past week.

"Obviously Monday we accept as a group was not good enough," he admitted. "On Saturday we started sloppily and Accrington have played at this game for a while now and they just managed the game better.

"It was a scrappy game of half chances and we were well in it without causing them too many problems, so we're massively disappointed. We've just got to stick together because we knew it would be tough at this level.

"Credit to Accrington, they saw it out well and they have some good players, but we can't feel sorry for ourselves because games come thick and fast and we've just got to go again. We'll put this week behind us and go again.