Wilder frustrated as Cobblers are denied penalty chance

John-Joe O’Toole put Northampton ahead on the stroke of half-time when turning home a corner before Dons came out flying in the second half and deservedly equalised through Lyle Taylor’s classy finish.

Both sides had chances to take all three points in an end-to-end second half but the game finished level, although Wilder felt the Cobblers should have had a penalty when John Marquis was seemingly brought down by Kelle Roos late on, but referee Philip Gibbs didn’t give it.

He said: “Certainly from where I was it looked a penalty and you always look at the reaction of the players and the supporters and it wasn’t a half-hearted appeal.

“The ref said he had the best view of it when I spoke to him so you have to go with that and we didn’t get that one.

“I think both managers and both sets of supporters can have concerns about the performance of the referee, but maybe he shouldn’t really get the headlines because it was two teams from who’ve gone really well form wise from Christmas onwards.

“They’re a threat and had big parts of the game and we’ve had big parts of the game. It was tight but that’s what you’re going to have at this stage of the season.”

Wilder pinpointed “bad decisions” at the start of the second half as the key reason behind his side’s failure to take home all three points.

He added: “I was a little bit disappointed we didn’t stretch our lead but I thought they came out second half and really pinned us back and we made some really bad decisions which put ourselves under pressure.

“They came strong but towards the back end of both halves we were the better sides without really being dominant.

“It’s a tough competition and a tight league and we’re at the business end of the season.

“They’re not going to be walkovers and the game tonight was a real tight contest.

“It was one we could have nicked or one we could have nicked. The ref’s maybe not had a great night but it was a quick game and the tempo was really fast.”

Despite only drawing, Northampton have extended their lead to 11 points at the top of League Two after Plymouth lost at Barnet.

“We’ve extended our lead tonight which is a plus point,” Wilder added.

“When people talk about our results and us dropping points, they maybe need to look at themselves as well because we’ve extended the lead and it’s a decent situation to be in.

“The aim is to go up. The aim after that is to win the thing and we’ve got a great chance of going up and a great chance of winning it but you can’t win every game and it’s a tough competition.”