Opposition view: Cheltenham boss Darrell Clarke 'angry' after defeat to Cobblers at Sixfields

Cheltenham Town manager Darrell Clarke described himself as ‘angry and frustrated’ after his side came away empty-handed from their New Year’s Day clash against Northampton.

The Robins have been in good form since Clarke’s arrival and they had the better of a tight first half at Sixfields but struggled to create anything clear-cut before Will Ferry hit the post within 90 seconds of the restart.

That miss would prove a huge moment in the contest as Kieron Bowie both won and scored the decisive penalty on 67 minutes to clinch another victory for Cobblers and leave Cheltenham three points adrift of safety.

"I'm pretty angry and frustrated to be honest," said Clarke. "We got the ball into the final third on a lot of occasions today but we didn't produce, whether that was the final pass, cross or shot.

"We asked plenty of questions of them but didn't have the end product, which was frustrating, and then we give them a sloppy penalty, which was even more frustrating.

"I feel angry at the minute but we will go again. There are no complaints over the penalty – Lewis (Freestone) has to learn because he's done it a couple of times now. You can't be diving in there.

"It was always going to be a game where an error or a bit of quality made the difference and unfortunately we've given them a goal and then we lacked quality at the other end.

"We're better than that and to be honest I see it as three points dropped, not one, because we got into so many areas of the pitch where we could have hurt them but we fell short."