Kevin Nolan admits Northampton paid price for poor first half at AFC Wimbledon

Kevin Nolan admits his side were not good enough during the first half of their 1-0 defeat against AFC Wimbledon.

The Cobblers looked out of their depth in the opening 45 minutes, falling a goal behind after an excellent Dons move was finished off by Callum Maycock.

Nolan was forced to go back to the drawing board after just 31 minutes, subbing off Tyrese Fornah for Max Dyche before making two more changes at half-time.

The visitors were much improved after the break, but Nolan believes his side deserved to lose after a disappointing first-half display.

“Yeah, it was very tough,” he said. “Look, the reality of it is we just weren’t good enough in the first half.

“That is why we had to change something quite quickly, we couldn’t let the game get away from us.

“That is why we made the sub as early as we did. I thought it settled us a bit, although it still was not great and when we got them in at half-time, we were able to give them a bit more instruction.

“Something had to be done, we did it but unfortunately we just did not get too close.

“We made the keeper make some saves in the second half, it was better, he ended up getting man of the match, which says a lot.

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we have to roll our sleeves up. You have to give credit to them [AFC Wimbledon], they have beaten some good sides here.

“It is always a difficult place to come, you have got to give credit to them.”

Northampton have now gone six League One games without a win.

AFC Wimbledon manager Johnnie Jackson says his side recognised that the clash was a great opportunity to move up the table.

“We knew this was an opportunity for us to add to our total and keep climbing the table,” he added.

“We have done that today in a tough game, a really tough game. I felt like we showed two really good sides to us, with the ball and without the ball.

“I thought we were excellent in the first half, the way we moved the ball and caused them problems.

“I was really pleased with that. I wanted a second goal to make the scoreline more comfortable and so it reflected the way the game had gone.

“Football doesn’t always work like that. They were obviously going to change things [in the second half] to try and get back into it.

“We had to show a different side to us. It was a really similar game at their place and we conceded in the second half and they won the game, and took it away from us.

“It was similar in terms of what they tried to do in the second half. We wanted a second to kill it but sometimes you don’t get it and it is about seeing it through.”