12 September 2020

Mixed emotions for Northampton boss Keith Curle after Dons draw

12 September 2020

Northampton manager Keith Curle had mixed emotions following his side’s opening-day 2-2 draw against AFC Wimbledon.

The newly-promoted Cobblers were behind after just 21 seconds of their Sky Bet League One return as Ethan Chislett capitalised on an error at the back.

But Matty Warburton and Ricky Korboa, on his League debut, struck either side of Nesta Guinness-Walker’s well-worked goal as a frantic first half ended all square.

The second period was a little less frenetic but both sides had chances to claim all three points, most notably Sam Hoskins and Fraser Horsfall.

But Northampton had to make do with a point and that represented a solid start for Curle, even if there are improvements to be made.

“The start to the game was obviously not what we wanted,” he said. “But I thought we settled down well and showed good character.

“There’s aspects of the game that we’re disappointed with because they didn’t break us down, we were just a little bit naive in our decision-making and that’s something we have to work on and will work on.

“But again the character to come back was excellent and we created some good opportunities and there’s still more to come from us.

“There were a few key, defining moments in the game where we just needed that little bit of quality to make the right decision going into their final third.

“We could have caused them more problems and some of our decision-making on set-pieces needs to be better and we need to identify where their weaknesses are and where our strengths are.

“But these are all things we work on and there’s nothing better than putting them into a game situation and then looking at it back and showing players where they can improve.”

Dons boss Glyn Hodges was also happy to start the season with a hard-fought away point.

“It’s a positive result, although the boys in the changing room afterwards felt we could have won it,” he said.

“Northampton play a particular brand of football and they put us under pressure. It was an end-to-end game and it was a shame it was played behind closed doors because it was very entertaining.

“Obviously it was a brilliant start for us – we were top of the league after the first 20 seconds!

“That’s a great start to Ethan’s League career and I think he’ll get more goals for us, but Northampton are off the back of a great season when they got promotion so we’ll be happy with a point.”

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