Northampton Town chief Stuart Gray says his side's inability to retain possession was at the heart of their 1-0 defeat at the hands of Athletic on Saturday.

Andy Liddell scored the winning goal 15 minutes from time as Athletic kept themselves very much in touch with the play-off pack.

The visitors had the majority of the possession throughout and Gray - who faces an FA Cup replay against Leeds tonight - demanded better from his side post-match.

"In terms of what we did with the ball it is probably the most disappointing performance since I've been here," he said.  "The back four did okay, it was the players in front of them who let them down by giving the ball away far too cheaply.

"Players do have off days but like I've said before we are a team who needs 9 or 10 players at it but we probably had 6 or 7 players who weren't at their best today.  The players were fully focused on the game but if you give the ball away as cheaply as we did then you are going to struggle.

"I picked a side that I thought could win the game and the disappointing thing is that we have lost our home record.  I've got a very tired dressing room but the reason that they are tired is because they kept giving the ball away and putting themselves under pressure."