Performances encourage Cobblers winger Anderson despite frustrating run of results

Paul Anderson felt his side deserved more against Bolton. Picture by Sharon Lucey

In the space of two weeks, the Cobblers have sunk from seventh to 16th in Sky Bet League One thanks to four consecutive defeats against Gillingham, Peterborough, Bradford and Bolton.

But with all four of those losses coming by the odd goal and three inflicted by teams in the current top six, all is not lost for Northampton who, according to Anderson, have provided enough evidence to suggest that it’s only a matter of time before they head back up the table.

“If you look at the previous four games that everyone will go on about, Bradford were probably the better side, but other than that, you think of Gillingham, Peterborough and Saturday against Bolton and all of those games could have gone either way,” said the former Swansea City man.

“It was horrible to lose in the fashion we did against Peterborough but they’re one of the better footballing sides in the division and the same could be said of Bradford and Bolton.

“We’ve been just as good, if not better, in two of those three games and I think we’ve got to take all of the positives because we’ve been doing well.

“The fans clapped off on Saturday and as a team, everyone went out there and showed heart and absolutely battled our way through it and on another day we could have won that game.

“We can only perform the way we perform and the results will come.”

Despite his positivity, though, Anderson has warned his team-mates that they can’t rely purely on luck to turn their fortunes around.

Northampton dominated much of Saturday’s encounter against Bolton Wanderers but were unable to turn pressure into goals as they were punished for one piece of lax defending which allowed Zach Clough to score the game’s only goal.

“We’ve got to be better and we’ve got to be more clinical,” added Anderson.

“We can’t keep creating chances and then coming off every game and saying ‘oh we’ve made one mistake and we’ve been punished yet we create 10 half chances and don’t finish one’.

“Fans can be patient but it’s just as frustrating for us and you can see the disappointment in the boys when they give absolutely everything every week yet you come away with nothing again.

“We go again. We’ve got the FA Cup so that’s a break from the league and hopefully we can get a positive result there and then get back to the league.”

On Bolton’s winner, Anderson continued: “I think it was preventable. Myself and Jak McCourt spoke about it afterwards.

“Their players have changed over and we’ve both gone with the other player and somehow there was a great touch past Gabby and he was in on goal.

“I think we could have maybe blocked the runners or stopped him getting in behind us, but again they’ve only had one clear chance.

“I can’t remember David (Cornell) making a save and it’s one of those things at the minute and when it feels like the weight is on your shoulders, unfortunately those things go against you.”