'Naive' defending and poor start leave Curle frustrated

Cobblers boss Keith Curle rued a slow start and more 'naive defending' after his side succumbed to back-to-back 4-0 defeats on Saturday.

Having been thrashed at Oxford United in midweek, Town failed to muster a response as they were again outclassed and outplayed by promotion-chasing Lincoln City at the PTS.

The writing was on the wall from the moment Anthony Scully broke the deadlock on just 65 seconds. Tom Hopper made it two late in the first-half before Brennan Johnson rubbed salt into the wounds with two late goals.

"It's a bad start and it all comes from our free-kick," lamented Curle. "We get a free-kick and then the next thing we know we're picking the ball out of our net after two minutes.

"That's not what we needed. We talked about them breaking before the game but we didn't win the first contact and vacated an area which gives them an opportunity to break forward.

"We know we haven't been getting the results so the last thing you need is to concede an early goal. You need to get into the game and gain dominance and we spoke about getting on the front foot and putting them under pressure.

"But we gave them a lift up. They're a good team but I didn't think there was that much in the game after the first goal, but then they go and get a second goal and you've got to say it was very naive defending.

"The effort and the commitment was there but naivety in our defending cost us."