Colin Calderwoodplaceholder image
Colin Calderwood
Colin Calderwood believes people who blame the January transfer window for Cobblers’ relegation ‘have the wrong end of the stick’ – despite the team’s dramatic collapse in form in the second half of the season.
Town were 12th on Christmas Day and remained outside of the relegation zone going into January but they lost Man United loanee Ethan Wheatley at the start of the window and then missed out on a number of strikers before the deadline. It’s now one win in 22 and eight points from a possible 66, with relegation confirmed by Wednesday’s defeat at Luton.
"I think the quality of the opposition is half of it and then we lost games against the teams around us,” said Calderwood when asked what's gone so wrong since Christmas. “That was our chance to get ourselves out of the position that we were in, certainly the Leyton Orient game at home and then we weren’t good enough after that.
"There was a period of six to eight games where we didn’t win a game and that was against teams around us and that really hurt us. You add that to the quality of other opposition in this league, it’s probably a fair summary of why we find ourselves here.
"We need to have a bit of luck on our side and we have to be really good and play close to our top level. The boys did that in the early part of the season but we haven't managed to keep doing it. We are almost there but end up losing. Tonight sums that up – a decent performance but we lose the game.”
Wheatley was a significant loss at the start of January and many believe the failure to adequately replace him is one of the main reasons behind Town’s struggles. The club did try to bring in players but they missed out on their main targets, including a couple on deadline day.
Calderwood added: "We’ve lost out on better strikers than the one we lost out on in that moment in the years I’ve been here so that’s not the problem. The transfer window wasn’t our fault. The team that played tonight demonstrated a good level of performance and a threat against a good team. I have absolutely no complaints with what happened in January. People will look at that and reflect on it but they have the wrong end of the stick.”
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