Northampton boss Jon Brady blamed “really poor” defending as his side conceded just 30 seconds after taking the lead at Harrogate and were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw.
A victory would have moved the Cobblers level with third-placed Carlisle as they look to reignite their automatic promotion bid, but it was relegation-threatened Harrogate who took more pleasure from a share of the spoils after Luke Armstrong’s instant response cancelled out Mitch Pinnock’s deflected 49th-minute opener.
Brady said: “To take the lead and then concede within 30 seconds is really bad and very disappointing. Our defending was really poor in that moment and that’s not like us.
“But overall, we didn’t do enough to deserve the win either. We maybe did do if we’re talking territorially but, in terms of shots on target and brightness in our play, then definitely not.
“We pushed and pushed but in the end, we couldn’t break them down even though we brought on our subs and had four strikers on the pitch at the end.
“The quality has to be better as does the decision-making and we looked a bit tired after two long journeys, which is disappointing.
“We started off quite brightly but didn’t have much energy after that throughout the game and it was a frustrating night all round.”
Simon Weaver, meanwhile, praised his Harrogate side for bouncing back after the disappointment of Saturday’s 3-0 loss at Swindon and recovering from a goal behind in this contest.
He said: “I thought the lads worked ever so hard and I’m just delighted to get a valuable point against a good team. We showed character after a disappointing day on Saturday and it was a quick turnaround, so it shows the capacity to respond to a disappointment.
“To a man, everyone gave it their all and I’m very proud of the group. We filled the lads with positives at half-time because it was a display of character against a good team so, to then be deflated like that from them scoring a goal, we needed a big reaction and we got that.
“It would have been easy to cave in and think the world is against us because it was a deflected goal, but that’s when you need characters to stand up and that’s encouraging for us. The game was a bit like pinball at times and there was a bit of nervous energy in the first half but that’s because we’ve just suffered a 3-0 defeat and you’re going to be a bit bruised from that.
“We also know the importance of each game at the minute and the players were superb in terms of their energy output against a team challenging for promotion.”
