Northampton Town Football Club

Cobblers boss Keith Curle said his side were below par as he reflected on Saturday’s home defeat to Leyton Orient.

“I can’t smudge over the fact that today we were below par,” he said.

“I got a phone call from Charlie Goode at ten o’clock this morning that he had come down with a bug and there is no doubt his absence upset our rhythm. He is a vital cog in our wheel and he is a very influential individual.

“To miss Charlie and Jordan Turnbull wasn’t ideal but even so we had enough professionals out there to be competitive and I didn’t think we were competitive enough today.

“We didn’t win first contact enough, we didn’t win the second ball enough and when we did have possession we lacked quality, particularly in the final third.

“We hit the post early in the second half and that would have been a good time to score but we didn’t and then we got caught out by a long ball for their goal.

“Getting Alan McCormack back out on the pitch was a positive but I can’t gloss over the fact that we had too many players whose performance was under par."