Jacobs mystified by 'horrendous' run as Cobblers fail to arrest slide
Michael Jacobs admits he is bewildered by the extent to which Northampton’s form has fallen off a cliff since Christmas.
Cobblers look to be sinking without a trace after a fourth successive loss when swept aside 4-1 by Mansfield on another bleak afternoon. Guilty of conceding sloppy goals at the start of both halves, Colin Calderwood’s troubled men were once again their own worst enemies.
"It’s happened to us a lot recently – conceding poor, soft goals at the start of games,” said Jacobs. “That gives us a mountain to climb and it’s been our downfall, especially in the second half of the season.
"The goals are so easy for Mansfield, I know these things happen but we have to be so much better as a group and we have to try and grind something out and show some pride because we’re in a serious rut.
"The second half wasn’t good enough, we let the fans down, and if you keep making mistakes and you keep giving goals away, you’re fighting a losing battle. This league is tough enough as it is and teams aren’t going to give you opportunities and give you goals but that’s what we’re doing at the moment.
"We need to show some pride, sort ourselves out and pick up some points because there’s still seven games left.”
The scale of the collapse is hard to get your head around. On Christmas day, Cobblers were 12th in League One with 27 points from 20 games. Since then, they have one win and just eight points in 19 games, scoring 12 goals and conceding 35 in the process, easily the worst return in the division across that period.
"It’s hard to put your finger on it,” admitted Jacobs. “When you look back, we won the game against Wimbledon and moved into the top half but it all seems to stem from that Burton game on Boxing Day.
"There’s been a real change in results and the run we’re on, in terms of points and results, is horrendous, and I can’t put my finger on why that is. We lost lads in January who were big for us but we still feel we have enough in the changing room to pick up points in this division and be more competitive.
"But we’ve been stuck in this rut a long time and when the second goal goes in against Mansfield, you can just kind of sense that another one will go in and it’s hard to stop.
"We’re proud people and this is a proud football club so we need to make sure, whatever happens in the next seven games, we go out there, fight hard and do our utmost to pick up points.”