Keith Curle hails Northampton’s ‘win for the changing room’

Keith Curle felt it was “a win for the changing room” after Northampton secured their first Sky Bet League One success following promotion with a 2-1 victory at Shrewsbury.

Goals from Mark Marshall and Sam Hoskins clinched maximum points for the Cobblers, with a Shaun Whalley equaliser in between not enough to earn any reward for the hosts in a match that was one of seven EFL fixtures selected to stage a pilot event for up to 1,000 fans.

Boss Curle said: “I think that’s a win for the changing room and what we’re trying to create and build in that changing room.

“It would have been very easy – I think we’ve got 10 players unavailable either through injury or illness – where it’s one of those where a lot of people can have excuses already lined up.

“I outlined to the players that I don’t buy into excuses because we’re trying to create a competitive environment.

“We changed the shape and changed the personnel within the shape as well, but it gave us a platform to go and build on.

“A great start to the game. Then I thought we came off it and we allowed them to dominate the ball too easily and we lacked energy.”

Curle added: “Second half, I thought we upped it slightly – but there’s still more to come.”

Northampton took the lead in the 12th minute as Marshall drilled a first-time shot high into the net from a Joseph Mills cross.

Shrewsbury equalised seven minutes into the second half when Whalley finished coolly to the bottom corner of the net.

But Northampton grabbed what proved to be the winner in the 65th minute as Hoskins slotted home following a miskick from Shrewsbury goalkeeper Matija Sarkic.

Shrewsbury manager Sam Ricketts, frustrated by the early blow of losing defender Ethan Ebanks-Landell to injury, said: “It’s hugely frustrating at losing the game.

“I think when you go in there and you look we’ve had 70 per cent of possession and 19 shots.

“One of the biggest disappointments today was losing Ethan after 10 seconds of the game, which is a big blow. We’re already missing (Aaron) Pierre and other players, so to lose Ethan after 10 seconds is a blow.

“Then the first goal was obviously disappointing. We couldn’t reset really after losing the captain after 10 seconds of the game.

“Their goals were disappointing from my point of view and ultimately that’s hugely frustrating, but large parts of the game were very, very good.

“We scored one, we should have scored more, but ultimately we only scored one because out of the 19 shots we only hit the target five times, and obviously we need to do more.

“With the situations we got into certainly should have led to more goals.”