Exeter City defender Alex Hartridge said that all over the park the Grecians were not up to the standards they needed to be as they slipped to defeat to Northampton Town. The Cobblers continued their recent hoodoo over City as they came to St James Park and walked away with all three points in a 2-0 win.
Sam Hoskins’ strike 20 minutes into the first half had put the Cobblers ahead, timing his run to perfection to get on the end of a defense splitting pass, and then fire past the onrushing Vil Sinisalo. The visitors had all the chances to extend their lead, before finally doing so late on.
In second half stoppage-time, Patrick Brough sealed the win, tapping into an empty net following a counter-attack as Exeter poured men forward. The defeat means Exeter have only won two of the last 16 at home to Northampton and just one of the last 14 in all – and dropped down to eighth.
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Defensively City were left too open on too many occasions, while going forward they were fairly toothless in attack, barely threatening Northampton’s goal at all. From the high of Tuesday night’s win over Premier League Luton Town in the Carabao Cup, it was a low point perhaps of the campaign having never got going at all.
“We spoke about it, we didn’t seem ourselves,” Hartridge said. “We had to make our own atmosphere and didn’t do that today and we got punished for it.
“It all bleeds it one. We didn’t win enough first contacts, they picked up the second ball and momentum and too many moments of scrambled defending and saves that Vil made. All over the park we weren’t good enough and it is on all of us that we didn’t score or keep a clean sheet. We have struggled against teams that come and put it on us and on us to fix that. We need to get back to winning first contacts
Up next for City is a trip to Charlton Athletic on Tuesday night as the games keep coming thick and fast. And the academy product said that the players will have a reaction to the defeat.
“It is a chance to put it right,” he added. “When winning it is brilliant to have games to keep the run going and when you lose it is something to react to. We will have a reaction, the games off the back of a good performance we need to work out the mindset to.”
