Kevin Nolan gives his verdict on where and why it went wrong for Cobblers in Rotherham defeat
Kevin Nolan has outlined where he felt it went wrong for his side during Saturday’s curiously poor second half performance against Rotherham.
The visitors made the better start at Sixfields but Cobblers managed to ride out the storm before hitting the front through Sam Hoskins’ penalty. However, with Town pinned back and unable to get out, the second half was all one-way traffic and Rotherham’s pressure told through goals from Joe Lafferty and Josh Benson in the final 20 minutes.
The home side struggled at both ends of the pitch. They were unusually shaky at the back and also carried virtually no attacking threat after Hoskins’ spot-kick, taking just one shot between the 26th minute and full-time.
Nolan believes his side’s inability to deal with Rotherham’s direct play was a big reason for their failure to reverse the momentum. The Millers regularly targeted Hoskins and Conor McCarthy on the right side of Town’s defence and the hosts could not deal with it.
"I've said to the lads that this is a big learning curve,” Nolan said. “I'm just disappointed because it felt a bit like Wycombe and that's the biggest disappointment for me. You're going to go through tough spells in games and what we have been able to do this season is manage those moments and get through those periods.
"Rotherham put it on us in the first 15 minutes but we rode out the storm and we managed to wrestle the momentum back. I thought we did that really well against Blackpool as well and we managed the game well and went on to win it.
"We didn't do that in the second half today and that's something we have to learn and get better at and that's been the message to the lads. They put it on us, as simple as that. They put it on us and behind us and it created havoc and our gaps were too big.
"The gaps between the midfield and the centre-halves were too big and we sat back into a five instead of pushing on and trying to make something happen. Even when we got the ball back, our decision-making and passing was way below where it should have been.
"We weren't able to regain momentum or get any control and that's where the problem lied. You have to give credit to Rotherham as well, the manager is a good pal of mine and he's been under pressure. They're getting players back and they won't be down there for much longer.
"No team will have an easy game against them but I thought it was more about us being off our game than them today.”