Unhappy Kevin Nolan dished out 'home truths' to Cobblers players during half-time of Dons win

The 27-year-old defender, who opened the scoring by heading home Dean Campbell’s early corner, his first league goal for the club, spoke with refreshing honesty when reflecting on the 3-1 win at Sixfields, admitting Cobblers were not at their fluent best in a scrappy and disjointed contest.

"It was not a bad night’s work but I think when we watch it back we won’t be too pleased,” said McCarthy. “I know we got three points but performance-wise we can be a lot better. We certainly had to fight and scrap and show a lot of resilience, which is probably the pleasing thing to come out of the game, but there’s definitely loads that we can improve on.

"After their goal we just seemed to drop off and give their players too much time and space. No matter what level you play at, if you give players time and space they will pick you apart and Wimbledon did that at times in the first half. Maybe there was a bit of anxiety in the group but there were some home truths from the manager at half-time and I thought we responded well and I felt we had the better of the game in the second half.

"The game was won on set-pieces and we work so hard on set-pieces like you wouldn’t believe. That one was for the coaching staff because we know as players how much work they put in behind the scenes and it was really pleasing for it to pay off for them.”

Northampton’s league position of 12th at Christmas might surprise one or two neutral observers but the players themselves have high expectations.

McCarthy added: "One of the main selling points for players in the summer was that the club wanted to push expectations and they were ambitious with the players they signed. I don’t think there’s an extra pressure on us because we treat every game the same but it’s great for the club and for the fans that we always expect to win whoever comes to Sixfields.

"It’s a nice position to be in at Christmas but we’re not even halfway through the season yet and it’s important to rest and recover because we all know as footballers how hard this period is when everyone else is enjoying themselves.”