Kevin Nolan can't hide his frustration after Northampton's defeat to Cardiff
Kevin Nolan rued his side’s wasteful finishing after they pushed Cardiff City close but were ultimately beaten 3-1 by the new League One leaders.
Joel Colwill gave City an eighth-minute lead at Sixfields but Cobblers responded well and dominated most of the first half, only to be let down by erratic finishing, at least until Ethan Wheatley eventually equalised early in the second half.
However, Wheatley scored an unfortunate own goal just three minutes later and then Elliott List spurned a golden opportunity to level late on before Chris Willock’s wonderful stoppage-time finish on the break took Cardiff to the summit.
"I’m disappointed,” said Nolan. “It’s another defeat in a game we should have got something from. We need to be more clinical in front of goal because they showed how to finish with two clean strikes for the first and third goals and that’s won them the game.
"Ethan’s a bit gutted about his own goal but those things happen in football and I thought he was excellent all game. He took his goal fantastically and we asked them lots of questions but what we didn’t do was put the ball in the back of the net at those crucial moments.
"When you don’t do that, you leave yourself open with the quality they have and the players they have and the resources on their bench. They can make changes and bring on quality and they showed that with a fantastic finish in the 94th minute.
"The lads worked the game plan to a tee but we didn’t execute at the top end of the pitch in big moments and that was the difference.”