"The first half was unacceptable," said the Cobblers boss. "There was a 10 or 15 minute period where I was looking at it, and if I had six subs I could have made six changes, we just went from bad to worse.
"I could have taken six of them off, I made one substitution but with the others I felt they had got themselves into the mess and it was up to them to get themselves out of it.
"I challenged the players at half-time to take some responsibility. People pay good money to watch us, and one thing they want to see is effort and commitment which showed in Andy Holt."
The draw was a third game unbeaten for Northampton. An improvement coming off the back of four straight defeats previously.
"I think he was a fine example of somebody wanting to work hard, rolling his sleeves up and have a go. He got man-of-the-match and he got a good goal as well. Unfortunately we couldn't then build on that."