What had seemed to be signs of progress for the Cobblers have now been undone by lacklustre displays against Crawley in front of the Sky cameras and at Vale Park on Friday night.
Gary Johnson kept his players in the dressing room after the game and emerged to say: “We were poor in the first half and we improved in the second half without ever really having the quality.
"Port Vale definitely deserved to win the game and things are going to be said about us for a little while until we can turn things around.”
Having chopped and changed to seemingly little effect so far, Johnson's hopes of going back into the transfer market seem slim.
“It’s easy to talk about getting players in,” he said. “But it’s hard to find the right ones.”
Home boss Micky Adams was delighted, saying: "We opened them up at will, our set-pieces were good and our commitment in closing down Northampton was superb."