Stuart Gray felt that the Cobblers paid the price for individual mistakes in their 2-0 defeat at Brunton Park on Easter Monday.

"The result was disappointing and we were punished for the mistakes that we made," he said.

"Football is all about having that belief and confidence and although we went into the Forest game full of confidence, at this moment in time the levels of performance have just dropped slightly in one or two of the players and they have lost a little bit of form. Carlisle have belief and confidence in abundance at the moment given the terrific run they are on and you can see that in their play.

"I can't blame the referee for our performance on Friday night, which was not as good as it has been in previous games, although he did get a penalty decision wrong and that changed the result and cost us a point.

"The pitch at Carlisle wasn't great but we know that is how the pitches are going to be at this stage of the season and we can't use that as an excuse because it's the same for both teams. You have to just play to the conditions.

"We lost Gabor Gyepes with a hamstring problem but hopefully he will be OK for Saturday. Mark Hughes is still struggling with a dead leg and although we've got Brett Johnson and Chris Doig coming back the last thing we want to do is to rush them. We have four good central defenders on the treatment table at the moment and that is stretching us.

"We don't want our season to fizzle out and we have got to keep that belief that we can make the top six. We owe it to ourselves and the supporters to keep going and there is no way I will allow our season just to fizzle out. There are 18 points to play for and you just never, ever know what is going to happen in football. We have to keep looking up and the teams above us will drop points. When that happens, we have to be ready to take advantage and we will certainly not give up.

"Against Swansea the whole team were at it but against Forest for some reason we had three or four players who didn't really perform.

"On Saturday, Cheltenham will be one of our hardest games of the season; They are in very good form at the moment and have won three and drawn one of their last four games. I saw them play Luton at the weekend and they are a very honest hard working bunch of players. If we don't match their excellent work ethic on Saturday we will be in trouble."

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