After suffering their second defeat in 10 league games at Crawley Town on Boxing Day, Northampton Town manager Keith Curle is looking for a response in Sunday’s home game against fellow promotion chasers Cheltenham Town.
The defeat left the Cobblers in 9th place, but just three points off the third automatic promotion place in what is a very close League 2 table.
“We need to go back to basics and back to what we have been doing to get good results,” he said.
“Our starting point is that we need to get ourselves on the front foot and against Crawley we didn’t do that.
“We want the ball in the final third and on Boxing Day we played a game and a style that didn’t suit us.
“The players have had the plaudits and the confidence is there when we do the things that we know we can do well but everybody has to be on the same page.
“When everybody is on the same page the rewards are there but you need to be switched on at all times.
“Going into this period we knew we were going to have to utilise the whole squad and with the two injuries to Harry Smith and Shaun McWilliams now we will have to even more so.
“There have been players chomping at the bit to play but when those players do come into the team they need to be sharper than they were against Crawley.
“At Crawley we didn’t do what we are good at and that’s playing on the front foot. We need to get back to that and hopefully we will against Cheltenham.”
Meanwhile, it has been confirmed by an x-ray that Harry Smith did not suffer a broken ankle at Crawley Town on Boxing Day. Smith will see a specialist for a further assessment on the injury in the coming days.