Cobblers boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink reflected on a disappointing first half performance as he looked back on Saturday’s 5-1 defeat at Oldham.
“It’s very disappointing and the first half wasn’t acceptable,” he said.
“We were too far off Oldham in the first half and if you play football like that then you will get punished. In the second half we made a fist of it but the game was gone.
“We needed to be more resilient and aggressive with and without the ball, we’ve all lost this game as a group and we have to get things moving in the right direction again quickly.
“Confidence is fragile but we can’t think about that, we have to find a way to move forward. We still have games to play this month and we need to get some points from those games.
“John-Joe O'Toole is just coming back from a serious injury and if I could have started him I would. We already took a risk putting him on the bench and I didn’t want to play him for 45 minutes but in the end I had to.
“Injuries haven’t helped but I still expect us to be competitive and in the first half today we weren’t.
“After this performance I will have to have a look and I will have to make changes for Walsall.”