Captain Harry Davis spoke to iFollow Iron after his side battled with ten men for 77 minutes but eventually succumbed to a 2-0 defeat away at Northampton Town on Saturday.
Davis said: “It’s been a disappointing day, with going down to ten men so early on affecting us. We did well to try and get to half time 0-0. That was positive and pleasing because it’s always difficult here (at Sixfields). They’re direct, physical and have a big side. I thought we would be able to reorganise at half-time, but we didn’t get going second half. We looked leggy and didn’t keep the ball long enough.
“With ten men you’re going to do a lot of defending and we had to. It was disappointing to concede the first goal as we could have done better as a whole, especially as a back four. The one at the end flatters them a bit, although they had a lot of possession.”
He added: “We did grow into it in the last ten minutes- we had a couple of corners and a couple of half-chances from which I thought we might get something. Overall, a disappointing day. We’ll look at it and try to learn from it for next week.”
Commenting on the sending off of Emmanuel Onariase in the first half, he said: “The red card was the right decision, I’m not going to blame Manny (Onariase) for it. There’s a lot of stuff that happens before it gets to that point. It did change the game but it’s not just Manny - a few things could have been done better in the lead up to being sent off. It makes it difficult for us with ten men coming here. It’s all about how you react to it and we didn’t do well enough second half.”
Discussing the two goals, Davis said: “I think if we keep 11 men on the pitch, I’m pretty confident in getting something out of the game. As I said, that didn’t happen and from then on, you’ve got to keep a clean sheet with ten men and we didn’t quite do that. The first goal was unacceptable, the second one we were trying to stretch and get an equaliser.
“I thought at the time the goal was offside but I’ve just seen it back with Ryan (Simpson, club analyst) and he’s onside so I’ve got no qualms with that. We'll look at it again on Monday I’m sure and look to improve on the performance from today.”
Looking ahead to Saturday’s home game against Exeter, he said: “It’s disappointing we’ve not made it another game unbeaten but we’ve got a free week until the game. We’ll be on the training pitch and try and put it right against Exeter and stay positive and learn from it.”
See much more from Harry Davis and Neil Cox on iFollow Iron.