Nolan felt Cobblers players went 'off-piste' during Wigan defeat

Nolan has regularly spoken about how happy and impressed he’s been with his players throughout pre-season, and he was confident they were in a good place for the trip to the Brick Community Stadium. However, despite a decent start, his team struggled to respond after Wigan hit the front and in the end they were comfortably beaten.

"When there's a crowd in and it's the first game of the season you can sometimes go a little bit off-piste and it looked like the lads were thinking about it a bit too much instead of just doing it and trusting themselves in the moment,” Nolan explained.

"We don't work hard all week in training to go off-piste but it wasn’t deliberate. The lads tried but it just wan't to be. There was not a lot in the game but we got beaten by a Wigan side who took their chances and won those battles. We got punished for our mistakes and that was unfortunate because on other days you get away with it, but we didn't stop it at source."

A shortage of quality on the ball was another source of frustration for Nolan, who added: "It's easy to say when you are stood on the touchline but I thought there were a couple of times where we tried to get some momentum and then lacked quality and that's not what I've seen in training.

"They've shown quality and composure but there wasn't that composure today. It's something we've got to help them with this week and give them visuals and work with them on the training ground. It's game one. We're disappointed because of the result and the performance, but we'll be ready to go again at the weekend.”

On the fans, Nolan continued: "The fans were brilliant and I thank them for that. They did what they always do and they got behind their team and sung their hearts out. Unfortunately we couldn't match their effort today but there will not be too many of these occasions over the season and I'm expecting a big response at the weekend.”