JOE Rothwell has backed Ryan Ledson to come back stronger after his mistake gifted Northampton Town the winner at the Kassam Stadium.

Wes Thomas’s 44th-minute strike had cancelled out Ash Taylor’s opener for the Cobblers.

But just when the U’s thought they had taken a psychological advantage going into half-time, they conceded again.

Ledson was caught in possession on the halfway line by Chris Long, who then breezeed past Aaron Martin and fired under goalkeeper Simon Eastwood.

The midfielder cut a dejected figure at the full-time whistle, but Rothwell believes his teammate will bounce back.

He said: “I think anyone in that situation would be disappointed.

“But it’s probably the first mistake Ryan has made since he has come here, so you can’t hang it all on him.

“He’ll learn from it and I’m sure he’ll kick on.”

Northampton’s second goal arrived just 60 seconds after United had levelled.

Having let in goals twice in similar circumstances in the midweek Checkatrade Trophy defeat to MK Dons, Rothwell was disappointed to see it happen again.

The midfielder said: “Conceding so quickly after we equalised is what is most frustrating.

“It happened to us on Tuesday and we said if we scored to make sure we keep it shut up for five minutes.

“Especially with it being so close to the end of the half we said, ‘let’s just take the draw into half-time and we’ll go out again’.

“But unfortunately, we conceded and we were always chasing the game again.

“As players I think we need to rally together.

“To try to turn your fortunes around you can only work hard and hopefully you get that little bit of luck.”