Aidy Boothroyd slammed his Cobblers players for allowing the occasion of Edgar Davids’ Barnet debut get to them, and called some of their decision-making ‘suicidal’.
Town were beaten 4-0 by a Bees side who went into the fixture bottom of the entire Football League and without a victory to their name this season.
They handed a first start to the former Ajax and Juventus midfielder Davids, who was recently named the club’s joint manager, and although he did not have a hand in any of the four goals, his presence was undoubtedly a catalyst for this result.
“This was a big banana skin, it was a hyped-up show that was about one man and one man only, a player who has not played for two years, and we made a team who are bottom of the League look like superstars and they’re not,” he said.
“We made it about him (Davids). You know having that is going to give them a bit of impetus and a bit of spark but there were periods in that first half when the crowd were starting to turn.
“When that happens you have to make sure they continue to turn on them but we gave them the momentum by making some suicidal decisions.”
The Cobblers also lost Chris Hackett to injury and the problems in that regard continue to mount at Sixfields, but Boothroyd did not want to make excuses, instead opting to focus on the response from his squad.
“Let’s get the excuses out of the way – yes, we’ve got a lot of young players in the side and yes we’ve got a lot of players out injured but we came here to win, we didn’t come here to lose 4-0,” he said.
“It was not acceptable. I can promise all the fans who made the journey down that we will be back and that we will continue the progress we have made.
“I know the players we have in that dressing room and who we have on the injured list are good characters and they will react to this.”
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