Boss Curle calls for ‘siege mentality’ as Cobblers prepare for Tranmere test

Town are currently seven points above second-from-bottom Macclesfield, and on Tuesday night they play their game in hand on the Silkmen when they travel to 10th-placed Tranmere Rovers.

A win at Prenton Park would see the Cobblers 10 points clear of the drop zone with 15 games to play, and Curle wants his players to get the ‘points on the board’ sooner rather than later.

“I fully understand where this club needs to be, where it wants to be, and I have a plan for how we are going to get there,” said Curle.

“Now first and foremost we need to get points on the board, we need to have a siege mentality, a fighting mentality and the strength of character that we will face challenges.

“I am confident that is in that changing room. Why am I confident? Because I have seen it, and I know it is there.

“We need to get points on the board, and we need that fighting mentality from the get-go.

“Then, whether it is 0-0, 1-0 or 2-0, our mentality can’t change, we need to keep the ball out of our net and we need to score goals.”

The Cobblers travel to the Wirral on Tuesday still reeling from Saturday’s 4-0 home hammering at the hands of Colchester United.

Trailing 1-0 at the break, Town collapsed in the second half and were booed off the pitch by their own supporters at full-time.

Curle sat through what must have been a real video nasty twice in the aftermath of the defeat, and although he admits it wasn’t pretty viewing, he insists things could have been very different.

“I didn’t enjoy my weekend,” said the Cobblers boss, ahead of the team’s training session on Monday

“I watched the game back on Saturday night, and watched it again on Sunday morning.

“Credit where credit is due, Colchester are a good team with good attacking options, but overall we had very good chances at key points in the game.

“Was it a 4-0 defeat? The scoreline says it was but there is a story to be told within that.

“The opportunity we had at 0-0 can change the game, the chance we had straight after half-time, at 1-0 down, that change things as well.

“We had other good opportunities and on another day we could have won the game, and it could have ended 4-4!

“Apart from the goals they scored they I don’t think Dai (Cornell) had that much to do, but they clinical and when they got their opportunity they hit the back of the net.

“It is a learning curve for our players, and when we get those opportunities we have to hit the target, we have to hit the back of the net.”

Asked if he was concerned by Town’s second-half ‘capitulation’, Curle said: “I wouldn’t say the team capitulated.

“I don’t think the players walked off the pitch shirking their respnsibility or trying to hide, it’s just that on the day things didn’t go our way.

“What we need to do now is work harder.”