Wilder unhappy after defeat

Northampton manager Chris Wilder slammed his side after their 3-2 defeat at Newport on Saturday afternoon.

Late strikes from Lawson D'Ath and Marc Richards sparked a late revival after the Cobblers looked dead and buried at 3-0 after half-time. But strikes from Chris Zebroski, Darren Jones and Lee Minshull were enough to claim County's first home win of the season. Wilder said: "We didn't deserve to get anything from the game. "It would have been a totally unjust result even though we had them rocking for the last 15 minutes. "They were the far better side for two thirds of the contest and deservedly got the points. "You have to earn the right to play by winning those first and second balls which they won a lot more of." "We tried to change our personnel at half-time, we showed good character after conceding the third goal and could have snatched an equaliser but we wouldn't have deserved it. "It doesn't matter if you're playing in a park or if you're at the highest level, you have to win headers and tackles to get control of a game, and they won a lot more than us." Zebroski got the Exiles off to a flying start after 18 minutes. Lee Minshull flicked the ball to the waiting Zebroski, who placed his shot into the right-hand corner of the goal. Things got worse for the Cobblers when centre-back Jones' stinging shot found the net via a deflection off Ryan Cresswell to make it 2-0 after 32 minutes. Minshull secured the three points after 54 minutes when he was given the freedom of the box to head home a Willmott free-kick. Northampton had Exiles fans sweating after they pulled two goals back through D'Ath on 76 minutes before Richards struck on 80 minutes, but County held on to take their unbeaten run to four matches. Newport boss Justin Edinburgh said: "We did take the gloss off it at the end by conceding two goals, but we controlled the game and were worthy of a 3-0 lead," he said. "We had to see the game out, we could've probably got more at 3-0 and killed the game off, but weren't able to do so. "But we picked up from Monday night in terms of the performance, so I am a pleased manager and we want that to be the level we maintain. "We have to do that consistently, we have built on a good win and now we'll look to kick on ahead of two tough away games at Tranmere and Shrewsbury."