David Artell has told the club’s official website that he has tried to stay away from his players this week and he says that his ‘indifferent mood’ could have rubbed off on his squad. The Alex boss was bitterly disappointed with last weekend’s 3-0 home defeat to Burton Albion and let his feelings known to the players throughout an extended video session with them on Tuesday.

The Alex boss says that the first home defeat in 12 games has been put to bed now and he is looking forward to a chance to put it right with a positive result at Northampton this weekend.

The Alex boss said: “I’ve tried to stay away from them as much as I can this week. I just thought that my mood might have impacted on them. I was on a course on Monday and we went through the video extensively on Tuesday.

“They know that myself and my staff felt the performance against Burton was unacceptable. We put it bed and we move on. I have picked myself and they have picked themselves up and we go again.

“I was saying to the staff last week that it felt that my wife had cheated on me! It felt that hurtful but we have to learn those lessons and get back to the standards we have set previously.

“We discussed the team yesterday. We discussed it again this morning, they will train and then we will pick the team. Like I’ve said all week, none of them can have any complaints if they are left out.”