Cobblers boss Keith Curle said his side were not good enough either individually or collectively as he reflected on Monday night’s Emirates FA Cup first round defeat at Oxford City.
“I would like to say it was the beauty of the FA Cup but there was nothing beautiful about our performance,” he said.
“Collectively and individually we didn’t perform but you have to give Oxford City a lot of credit. They showed real hunger and we had no personality throughout our team.
“The players have let themselves down and too many of them tonight have not taken this opportunity.
“I’ll take some responsibility, I picked the team and made the changes I did but in the changing room you can’t hide, we will be in at 8.30am on Tuesday to watch the video and pictures don’t lie.
“We’ve come up short tonight and we have to be honest that we weren’t good enough. We shouldn’t shy away and we won’t shy away from that. It’s honest criticism and the higher up in football you go you need to take criticism on board and learn from it.
“We fought extremely hard to get into League 1 and we need to stay in it. I am prioritising the league, a lot of hard work and effort went into get this club promoted and we need that again to make sure we stay up.”