A well-taken Luke James goal and one gift-wrapped to Hartlepool by devastatingly poor referee Mark Haywood consigned the Cobblers to a 2-0 defeat at Victoria Park.

Town were a shadow of the team that won its past two games and their attacking opportunities were few and far between.

But the course of the game was dictated by Haywood, who was visibly rattled by the noise from a home crowd that appealed for every decision with the kind of anguish usually reserved for women giving birth.

With such pained appeals ringing in his ears, Haywood refereed the game through a combination of cluelessness and blind fear, although it must be said that Northampton were no great shakes either.

Chris Hackett’s ongoing groin injury meant he was unable to play, with his place on the right of midfield going to Stuart Dallas.

The Northern Irishman, who had been unlucky to find himself out of the team after Brentford refused him permission to play at Bishop’s Stortford in the FA Cup, was a lively addition.

But it was the left-winger, Danny Emerton, who provided the game’s first good piece of attacking play, swinging a cross into the box that Jacob Blyth glancing onto Scott Flinders’ left-hand post and back out to safety.

Paul Reid then saw his header go narrowly wide after a low and flat Emerton corner had found him unmarked but standing still 15 yards out.

But Hartlepool began to enjoy more possession as the game progressed and took the first clear-cut chance of the afternoon with ruthless efficiency.

A long ball was clipped over the Town defence who stepped out for an offside flag that never came, and James trapped the pass before firing it under the advancing Matt Duke.

The goal did not spur the Cobblers into action and neither did it settle down the home side as the game meandered along at almost testimonial pace until a ball into the box was volleyed against the bar by James Poole with Duke beaten.

The game was effectively over four minutes after half-time. James Poole embarked on a strong run that took him into the box where he went down under contact from Reid.

Said contact looked minimal at most but referee Mark Haywood had given every decision the home supporters had appealed for up to that point and was not about to break the habit.

Central-midfielder Simon Walton sent Duke the wrong way from the penalty spot to put the home side two goals ahead.

It was a moment that killed the game as a contest, and one in which Northampton never looked like returning to as a serious force.

What a fuxking bell end.

As with most of the Cobblers’ defeats this season, there were mitigating factors at Hartlepool but the bottom line was another loss - and that should concern everyone involved.

The Hartlepool players did their homework. They knew this was a Town team whose recent successes had been based around a new tough-tackling style in central midfield, and they went to ground under any challenge.

At one point, their striker James Poole did what appeared to be a cartwheel after a bodycheck from Mathias Doumbe that wouldn’t have put down a tired toddler.

The home fans, perhaps inspired by pre-match comments about the physical Northampton style, foamed at the mouth with each indiscretion, and referee Mark Haywood crumbled.

His decision to award a penalty in the second half was laughably bad and gave the Cobblers a mountain to climb to get back into the game, something they never looked like doing.

And there’s the thing - teams, especially on their own grounds, are not having to do much to beat this Northampton side.

Hartlepool’s first goal was a punt over the top that caught the visiting defence square and playing for offside; admittedly Luke James did well to trap the pass and slot it past Matt Duke but it was an avoidable goal and a pretty sloppy one to concede.

Jacob Blyth’s glancing header against the post in the first few minutes was as good as it got in terms of a goalscoring opportunity and the defeat was entirely deserved.

Wingers Stuart Dallas and Danny Emerton played with plenty of effort but rarely got into crossing positions and the front line of Blyth and Luke Norris was neutralised with worrying ease by the home defence.

The concern for Aidy Boothroyd on Saturday is that the same issues that were presenting themselves when the team contained players such as Darren Carter and Gary Deegan did so with Kane Ferdinand and Ricky Ravenhill were in it.

That suggests an issue with the team’s preparation rather than any nebulous concepts of confidence or individual mental strength and for that the manager must be culpable.

There will of course be renewed calls for a change on that front - eight defeats in nine away games and a Football League position of 92nd will have a tendency to elicit such debates.

The club is approaching something of a crossroads - will the first few months of this season be seen as a fallow period in a long-term project for Boothroyd, a temporary blip that all managers who are in their roles for season after season seem to have?

Or is it the defeat at Hartlepool the latest step on the road to a moment of change, the beginning of the end?

Time will tell but the fixtures don’t get any easier.

A trip to Chesterfield, who swept a much more established and competent Town team aside with some ease last season, is next on Tuesday night. After that it’s Accrington at home.

That game might be the win-or-bust fixture.

I have also made a rare venture onto Twatter to tell this cock his fortune.

I wouldn't bother. On the evidence we've seen he's clearly a poor journalist and a football illiterate. Pointing that out to him seems a bit of a waste of effort. He also has to watch that garbage every week which is surely punishment enough.

fair comment from that bloke in your quote then.... but clearly he is wrong when he said we only had 4 or 5 good players

I like the description of Dolans inch perfect pass as ' a punt over the top'

I was stood behind the goal in the town end, he pointed nowhere near the penalty spot. You point down if you award a penalty. He can't have signalled for a free kick, so I can only assume he was signalling for a corner, otherwise it's a very strange way to signal for a penalty.

The youtube highlights don't show his initial reaction but shows him pointing to the back of the town end, can't ever recall a referee pointing to the back of a stand to award a penalty, very strange.

Either way it's a massive blunder not to then send the player off.

Very strange way to signal for a penalty, never seen anything like it before.

The journo has now tweeted.....

@JeffersonLake: Looks like I've upset the Hartlepool fans. Gonna disguise myself as a monkey until it blows over. I'll be safe then.

To be fair watching Northoofton every week he's probably forgot what a measured pass or indeed a pass looks like.

That pass was of high quality to describe as that suggests the bloke has no idea what he's talking about.

why do southerners have such a superiority complex anyway? On what basis is this attitude forged?