Cureton keen to claim Cobblers shot-stopper Nicholls’ own goal

The first goal of the match, eventually won 3-0 by Exeter, was a controversial one, with Aidy Boothroyd claiming Cureton fouled Nicholls but admitting his goalkeeper needed to show more physical presence when coming out to claim a corner.

Any contact appeared to be minimal, but Cureton felt he did enough to distract the on-loan Wigan youngster for the goal to be credited to him.

“I was involved in it so I’m definitely claiming it,” he said. “I’m not sure if I got a touch on it, I jumped and I think I got caught between his (Nicholls’) arms.

“Whether or not that put him off grabbing it, I don’t know. If I’m near the ball then I’m claiming a goal and we’ll see what happens.

“I did enough to put him off and maybe it’s an own goal, I’ll have to see it again.”

Cureton definitely did score Exeter’s second, a glancing header from a free-kick that ended an attempted comeback from Northampton and went some way to settling the contest.

Jake Gosling added a third at the end of a counter-attack shortly aftewards to seal the 3-0 victory, one that Cureton felt was among the best Exeter have achieved this season.

“Northampton are a tough team, we knew how they were going to play but I thought we dealt with that,” he said.

“Our home form hasn’t been great but this is probably one of the best games we’ve played here.

“We stood up to everything Northampton had and then we counter-attacked them and we probably could have won by more.

“They like to slow the game down and get the throw-ins and corners and we knew if we kept the ball in play we’d come out on top.

“We played the ball around very well and created lots of chances. I probably scored have a couple more goals.”