Nolan won't blame individuals despite mounting frustration over costly errors

Town occupied a top half spot after beating Wimbledon at Sixfields a month ago but a calamitous defeat at Burton followed on Boxing Day and they have not won a game since to slide all the way down to 21st. Multiple individual mistakes have undermined Cobblers in the last month, particularly in that horror show against Burton, and then again last Saturday when Wycombe pounced on two lapses at the back.

"We have reflected on Wycombe this week and we were all disappointed because the goals we conceded were really poor,” said Nolan. “The first one is a simple throw in that should never lead to a goal and the second one, there's just no communication.

"It means we’re having to score two or three every game but I want to be tight at the back regardless. Even if we did score three or four ourselves, I don't want to be giving away goals like that because we work hard all week and all season long to keep clean sheets.

"When you show the footage to the lads, you can see how disappointed they are. I wouldn't call it embarrassing but when you're watching yourself on the screen, you're wincing and you can see what you should have done.

"Going back a few weeks now, even as far back as Wimbledon, the manner of the goals that teams are scoring against us is not good enough so we've worked really hard this week to eradicate those errors.

"It's not just one mistake, and I'm not signalling out individuals because it's a team effort and it always comes from somewhere else, but that's what we've spoken about between ourselves and we need to fix it.”

Cobblers start a pivotal week by going to Blackpool this weekend. The Seasiders are massively underperforming expectations this season and only sit outside the relegation zone on goal difference.

"It’s such a tough league,” Nolan added. “You only have to look at Blackpool and how tough they've found it but I fully expect them to go on a run at some point – hopefully it doesn't start on Saturday! If we can get back to what we are, I believe we can go there and get a good result and that could be the trigger we need to go on a run.

"Blackpool have a top squad and they won't be liking where they're at because they would have been looking at the top six and challenging for promotion this season, but it just shows the competitiveness of this division.”