ASSISTANT manager Malcolm Crosby was bitterly disappointed after a disheartening showing at Meadow Lane.

Crosby is unclear whether he has a future at the County Ground but it seems likely he will at least stay to help steer the team through the busy Christmas period.

He said: "We weren't playing particularly well but scored a good goal against the run of play.

"I'd have like to have seen us go on from that and even though they went 2-1 up just before half-time I thought we could still get back into the game, particularly when they had a man sent off.

"But once Razor had been sent-off, we were very disappointing.

"As for my own position, it's too early to say. I'll have to think about it. But at the moment the main focus is getting the lads ready for the Bournemouth game."

Town goalscorer David Duke took little satisfaction in his second strike of the campaign.

The 23-year-old wing back said: "The goal is irrelevant because the result is everything at the end of the day. We just didn't start.

"Although we didn't deserve the lead that we got, we should have taken advantage of it. But we didn't and conceded two goals at a very important time."

Duke refused to blame managerial upheaval for the defeat but admitted it had not helped.

He said: "It's like Groundhog Day to be honest. We should be used to all this by now.

"It seems like Andy King is coming back and at least he knows all the players."

Midfielder Steve Robinson seemed to sum the feelings of the Town players.

The former Birmingham City midfielder said: "It was a bad, result, a bad day at the end of a bad week."

" There was no spark and we didn't pass and move as we know we can.

"When they got the third, then that was it."

Turbo said it had been an unsettling time for the players but it was not the first time they had seen a manager go and it was important not to let one poor defeat became a sequence of bad results.

Central defender Matt Heywood also lamented Town's poor display against the struggling Magpies.

After slating the performance of referee Mark Warren, Heywood turned his attention to matters off the pitch.

He said: "How he could send two players off for the reasons that he did is beyond me."

Heywood admitted that the departure of Roy Evans had been a blow for the players and that it was hardly the ideal preparation for a match.

He said: "It has been a big shock to everyone. It just seems to be the way with this club. You just start to settle into a routine and it's cut short. You don't seem to know where you stand from week to week."

"But as of Monday, Andy King is back as manager.

"I don't really think it was the football side of things that led to him getting the sack in the first place.

"But at the end of the day, we're paid to play and that's what we have to do, starting with the Boxing Day game against Bournemouth."

Danny Invincible was the most critical of the Town players following the 3-1 defeat last night.

The Australian rarely had the chance to add to his six goal tally so far this season.

He said: "It was absolute garbage really. They hadn't won a game since September.

"We couldn't win the 50-50 balls and they just played right through us at times.

"But when they went down to 10 men we should have really punished them. But we played into their hands when we should have got the ball out wide.

"Things like this just shouldn't happen."

However, the Aussie is refusing to press the panic button.

He thinks a couple of wins over Christmas will go a long way to putting right the current woes.

"Let's make the most of the two home games we've got coming up.

"We need to get the confidence back up and get the lads going again. I'm sure we are more than capable of doing that."