Wimbledon boss Johnnie Jackson was left fuming by the manner of his side’s 3-1 defeat to Northampton.
Dons paid for a slow start at Sixfields when Conor McCarthy headed home after 10 minutes but they rallied through Marcus Browne’s equaliser and then edged the rest of the first half.
However, two free-kicks in the space of eight second-half minutes saw Cameron McGeehan bag a brace as Northampton jumped above Wimbledon in the League One table.
“I’m really annoyed,” said Jackson, whose side are now without a win in seven league games. “I’m fuming to be honest because it’s all our own doing.
“We’ve conceded three goals from set-pieces and the way we started the second half was so disappointing.
“We spoke at half-time about the threats Northampton have in terms of long throws, long balls into the box, corners, all of that.
“We also said before the game not to give away too many fouls but we give one away at the start of the game, it leads to a corner and they score.
“We give another one away at the start of the second half, it goes in our box and they score again. The fouls, the defending, the failure to win first or second contacts, it’s all cost us tonight.
“If you take out the start of the second half, I thought we were the dominant team for most of the game but there’s no point being the dominant team if you go and give three goals away from set-pieces.
“I’m just really, really frustrated tonight.”
The win lifted Northampton to 10th ahead of the weekend action.
“I’m delighted with the win and I thought we were probably worthy of it,” said manager Kevin Nolan.
“We started the game really well and got the early goal but then we kind of went into self-destruct mode and we lost too many battles and we turned over too many balls in the first half.
“I had to change it a bit earlier than I would have liked but we wanted to get more legs in midfield so we dropped Cam deeper and brought on Kamarai (Swyer) and I thought we were better in the second half.
“All three goals came from set-pieces and that’s not something we’ve done enough this season. We work on it tirelessly and I’ve said to the lads that we need to be better and tonight we got their rewards.
“If you want it to drop to anyone in the box, Cam’s probably the one and I’m really pleased that he got his brace.
“It wasn’t a great spectacle but I’m delighted with the win and I’m delighted to send all the fans home happy before Christmas.”
