Cardoza: Cobblers have to quickly move on from ‘embarrassing’ Wembley defeat

PAINFUL AFTERNOON - David Cardoza watches Bradford boss Phil Parkinson lift the play-off trophy at Wembley

Town were humbled 3-0 by Bradford City at Wembley, with the game as good as over after just 28 minutes as the Bantams scored their third goal in the space of 13 nightmare minutes.

An army of 23,000 Cobblers fans made the trip to north London, and Cardoza said: “Wembley was embarrassing.

“I wished the ground could have swallowed me up when they third goal went in. I could have done without it.”

The chairman says there has been no great inquest between him and manager Aidy Boothroyd following the defeat, because he says they both know what went wrong, and how to rectify things for next season.

“We haven’t spoken about it to any great length, we know what went wrong, and we both feel terrible about it,” said Cardoza.

“We still do feel terrible, most of the staff do and we are deflated, but you have to move on.

“And you have to move on quickly.

“It was another poor away performance and that has to stop, it is something we have to sort out for next season if we want to get promoted.”

Cardoza and Boothroyd are already plotting what is needed to take the team forward next season.

Seven players were released last week, with seven others being offered new deals, and although the chairman says the budget will be cut, he insists it won’t affect Boothroyd’s squad building.

Asked if he will be spending less in the coming season, Cardoza said: “Definitely.

“We spent far too much this season, and thankfully we got to the play-off final so we got some money back, but not as much as people think.

“You don’t make that much money from those games, but it is money we didn’t have, and it has sort of paid back what we spent, give or take.

“Next season we will spend less, but it won’t be very noticeable because we were carrying two or three big earners that weren’t playing anyway.

“So it won’t be noticeable to the fans, and if anything they will look at one or two of signings and think they are really exciting.”

And he added: “We want to get promoted, but we won’t be spending to the level we did last season because it is a risk.

“We have to be responsible. We are a big club for league two so we will always have a top-seven wage bill, roughly, and that is what we will have next season, minimum.”