James Brophy admitted that “naivety” proved to be Town’s undoing against Northampton Town on Tuesday evening.
An unfortunate own goal had given the Cobblers a 1-0 lead in the second-half at Sixfields but a moment of brilliance looked to have earned the Reds a share of the spoils late on.
Brophy embarked on a magical and determined run before laying on a superb cross for Luke Norris to head home the equaliser.
However, that joy was short-lived as John-Joe O’Toole notched what proved to be the winner for the Cobblers just seconds later, inflicting a fifth straight defeat on Town.
And Brophy admitted in the wake of the game that he and his team-mates were guilty of switching off at the vital moment, although he felt there were some positives to take from the loss.
“We created a bit more against Northampton than we did against Bury but naivety crept in a bit where we’ve worked so hard to get ourselves back in the game and we’ve let it slip less than a minute later,” he said.
“We all know our jobs and there was maybe an adrenaline rush from the goal but it was probably just a bit of naivety from us to let it slip so quick.
“I thought we defended better and more as a team on Tuesday and we’ve just got to go back to the drawing board and make sure that we cut out the little mistakes. I don’t think there was too much wrong on Tuesday and it could have gone either way, so we’ve got to go back to training and cut out those mistakes.
“We’ve had a run of bad luck and everyone says that it evens itself out over the course of a season, so hopefully in the next few games we’ll get a bit of luck on our side.”
Oldham Athletic are the visitors to SN1 on Saturday (3pm Kick-Off) and Brophy has admitted that it is a must-win fixture for Town.
“It definitely is must-win and we’ve needed to get our act together for the last two games and we’ve come out of both games disappointed, so Saturday is an even bigger game,” he added.
“We need to make sure we are fully prepared for it and we’re going for the three points and nothing less.”
