Cobblers boss Keith Curle feels there are lessons to be taken from Saturday’s defeat at Bradford as the squad prepare to meet Newport County at the PTS Academy Stadium on Saturday.
“For large parts of the Plymouth and Bradford games we’ve looked solid but against Bradford we sat too deep and that is something we need to learn from,” he said.
“We could have kept the ball better and with still 20 minutes to go we were playing as if it was the last five minutes.
“We needed that second goal to kill the game off and we needed to retain possession in their half better.
“We want to build on clean sheets but we are still bedding players in and Michael Harriman is now another one. It takes time to get that understanding but it will come.
“The performance levels against Plymouth were very good and they were again for parts of the game at Bradford but we need to maintain that level of consistency and if we do that then results will go our way.”