Jon Brady concerned by slow starts and sloppy defending but insists Cobblers 'can and will get better' after FA Cup exit

Cobblers boss Jon Brady admits he is concerned by both his side’s growing tendency to start games slowly and their occasional lapse in concentration at the back following Saturday’s FA Cup first round exit to non-league Chesterfield.

Those two flaws combined to end Northampton’s FA Cup campaign at the very first hurdle in Derbyshire where Sam Sherring’s errant pass after only 14 minutes was seized upon by the hosts and culminated in Armando Dobra curling home the winning goal.

Cobblers also conceded early to Newport County last weekend and they have now found themselves go 1-0 down in six of their past nine matches in either the league or the FA Cup. It proved decisive on Saturday with Brady’s team unable to respond after missing several good chances.

Brady said: "Unfortunately, at the moment, we are in a habit of conceding early in the first 30 minutes of games and going behind and it's just too easy to score against us. That's not usually how we are. We have to be better, we can be better and we will be better.

"We were playing a very good side and they play some good football but they only had one real chance and we gifted it to them. We had five really good chances and on another day, you win that by two or three.”

Whilst Chesterfield did not create too many other chances on Saturday, Cobblers looked vulnerable on their left side where Ryan Haynes struggled to contain Liam Mandeville and the overlapping full-back.

Brady added: "Down their right-hand side and on our left, it wasn’t quite right and we had to adjust that at half-time. There were a few tactical things which we had to do to stop that and I thought we stemmed the flow but I would expect us to deal with that first and foremost.

"We didn't and that was disappointing so we have things to work on and things to get right. Individually and collectively, we need to be better all over.”