Ingram says Cobblers have '˜nothing to lose' as they head to high-flying Wigan Athletic

The Cobblers travel north in good spirits after claiming seven points out of a possible nine in new boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s first three games in charge, but they will be very much the underdogs when they run out at the DW Stadium.

Wigan have started the season in powerful fashion and will go second in the Sky Bet League One table with a win over the Cobblers.

Their two most recent games have seen them secure emphatic 3-0 wins at Chartlon Athletic and at home to Bristol Rovers, and they are unbeaten on home soil this season.

But they have dropped points at the DW, drawing 1-1 at home to Portsmouth on August 26, and Ingram believes the Cobblers are more than capable of causing Paul Cook’s side problems.

“It is a tall order, but we will go to Wigan and give it a good go,” said the shot-stopper, who signed a season-long loan deal at Sixfields on transfer deadline day.

“I think they are going to be one of the favourites to go up, it is a massive club, but we will go there, set up shop and go at them.

“We will give it our all as we have nothing to lose, really.

“If we lose at Wigan then everybody just says it’s just one of those things because it is a hard place to go and get points.

“But we can attack it, and see what we can get from it.”

The Cobblers secured a 2-2 draw at Southend United on Saturday, their first point on the road this season, but it could have been even better as Hasselbaink’s men were 2-0 up and seemingly in total control at half-time.

But a two-goal blast in little more than 60 seconds just after the restart saw Southend back in the game, with both goals down to lapses in concentration in the defence.

It was Ingram’s third game for the club, and for the third time the Cobblers found themselves under real pressure in the second half after comfortable first-half showings, and the former Wycombe Wanderers man admits he is at a loss to explain why that is happening.

“It was disappointing in the way we lost the two goal lead, but before the game if you had said we are going to draw 2-2 away from home at Southend we would have bitten your hand off,” said Ingram.

“But to be 2-0 up and then concede two quick goals in the second half was very disappointing, and as a team we need to improve in the second half, and especially at the start of it.

“It is hard to say what the problem is, but maybe we have thought the job is done, and then the goals hit us and we start panicking and go ‘crikey, we need to switch on here’.

“Maybe it is that, or maybe we just need to change our mindset at half-time and come out attacking, rather than be in a defensive mindset.

“It is nothing intentional that the lads do, but we do need to have a look at ourselves because in the past three games it has been a problem.”

And he added: “I don’t know if it is a mentality thing, and we just need to improve that a little bit.

“If we had not conceded in the first 20 minutes of the second half on Saturday then you would like to think the game would have been sewn up.

“We have given them a little bit of a route back in, and luckily against Pompey we managed to get another goal to kill it, but on Saturday it wasn’t to be.”