Opposition view: Magpies boss Ardley 'very frustrated' by FA Cup defeat

Ardley revealed afterwards that his team had done 'two days' of work on defending set-pieces prior to Sunday's tie but it went to waste inside just three minutes when Scott Wharton headed in Nicky Adams' corner.

Vadaine Oliver and Harry Smith also scored headers either side of half-time as the Cobblers booked their spot in round three, with Kyle Dennis' late goal nothing more than a consolation.

"I said in the build-up that we had to bring our A-game and we had to defend our box properly to get anything from this game," said Ardley.

"We've worked harder than ever because we knew what a threat they would be from set-pieces and we did two days of work on it, going through every facet of all the set-pieces they do and how to deal with them.

"But then after 90 seconds a player doesn't do his job and we concede so that is very frustrating having worked so hard on it.

"That's tough to watch and then the second one is a cross and a header in the middle of the box."

Despite trailing 3-0 with 15 minutes to play, things could have been very different for the non-league side had they taken their chances with Regan Booty, Kyle Wootton and Wes Thomas all fluffing good openings.

Ardley added: "Between the two boxes there wasn't much between the teams and I knew that would be the case but they're very attack-minded and a very big, powerful team.

"We had two or three really good chances at 1-0 and we had chances from six yards out at 2-0 but when you don't take them the inevitable happens and the third goal goes in to kill the game.

"We've got to tidy up our defending and we know that's the issue because we're a team that attacks and we try to get at the opposition - as we saw today.

"We created six of seven good chances away at a League Two club but as of late we've been conceding two goals and three goals each game and you're not going to win games doing that."