Huddersfield Town boss Michael Duff was left raging at his side’s performance after they were beaten 3-2 by struggling Northampton at Sixfields.

Sam Hoskins cracked home an excellent opener before Tom Eaves made it 2-0 at half-time and Northampton were in dreamland when Liam Shaw finished off a fine team move early in the second half.

The visitors rallied and set up a grandstand finish with goals from Herbie Kane and Jonathan Hogg, but the Cobblers held on to complete the double over Huddersfield this season.

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“I’m not interested in the two goals we got back,” fumed Duff, whose side are now four matches without a win. “We were nowhere near the levels that any football team expects, but particularly this football club. There was no fight and no spirit.

“They might get a well done for getting back into it, but do it from the first minute. I’ve tried to protect the players at times, but today was nowhere near good enough and we have to apologise to the supporters. They deserved better.

“I don’t know where it came from. They’ve scored two worldies, which doesn’t help, but that’s not an excuse and the third goal sums it up because we lose a duel and then lose four or five tackles.

“It’s the fundamentals of football. There’s no entitlement in this game. I kept it pretty short with the players afterwards, but I’ve told them it was nowhere near the levels we expect.

“If you’re not prepared to turn up and have a fight, don’t bother coming in on Monday. We got stick from the supporters and rightly so because we got beat up and we couldn’t deal with them.

“I don’t care how good we think the players are, you can’t deliver that for an hour and expect to get a result out of any game.”

The win was the first at home for Northampton boss Kevin Nolan and it gives them a five-point cushion over the bottom four.

“I’m obviously really happy,” said Nolan. “I thought it was another performance that was better than the one previous so we keep getting better.

“We got our rewards today with some good goals and quality finishing. The lads were brilliant and they’ve given everything.

“It’s been a three-game week and there were a lot of players who were really struggling, but they showed heart and they showed desire and they showed determination.

“That’s why they got their rewards and I’m absolutely delighted for them because it would have been a real big blow if we hadn’t have come away with the three points.

“I thought we were much better than Huddersfield and there were lots of good individual performances and they got what they deserved.”