Keith Curle: Northampton’s five-star show can be catalyst for future success

Posted Wednesday, October 24, 2018 by PA

Northampton manager Keith Curle believes his side’s 5-0 away victory against Macclesfield Town can be a catalyst for future success.

A hat-trick from Matt Crooks and goals from Daniel Powell and Aaron Pierre saw the Cobblers record their first five-goal away victory in 31 years.

And Curle believes it was the superb response after Northampton’s 1-0 defeat to MK Dons on Saturday.

“The tempo that we started the game at was a massive improvement from the last game,” said Curle. “It was a good reaction, a good response.

“Macclesfield are a challenge. Facing a team bottom of the league and not winning games can cause an air of complacency. But there was an air of hunger and desire to bounce back from the 1-0 defeat to MK Dons.”

The night proved to be a special one for star man Crooks, who bagged his first professional career hat-trick.

“There was some good finishing from Crooks,” added Curle, “The lad’s got untold ability, untold talent and he’s got the ability to do that from anywhere on the pitch.

“The pleasing thing was that he understood his role, slotting in on the right-hand side and still having the freedom to express himself in front of the goal.”

“I like clean sheets, but I also like scoring goals. Sometimes there is a balance to be had, but we’re committed to going forward and scoring.

“Confidence is a massive thing. If you master the simple things in football then confidence comes with it.”

“It’s another building block. It’s a win away from home, a clean sheet, we’re scoring goals and we’ve got the freedom to express ourselves in the right areas.

“That’s the foundation and the pillars we’re trying to put in place before the players.”

Macclesfield caretaker manager Danny Whitaker was left feeling embarrassed after his side’s defeat, which leaves the Silkmen five points adrift of safety.

Whitaker stated: “I’m speechless to be honest, I didn’t see it coming whatsoever. After last week’s training and Saturday’s game I was expecting a lot better.

“We’ve told the lads that it’s embarrassing. The fans deserve better than that, I thought we were going to give them a performance tonight but it didn’t happen.”

Whitaker was left bewildered as to why his team delivered such a poor performance on the night.

“We were second best all over the pitch, which is strange for us. It was completely out of the blue and out of character really.

“We were lacking all over the pitch tonight, in every aspect of the game.

“You get what you deserve in football and we really didn’t deserve anything out of the game.”