Port Vale boss Darren Moore rued his side’s wasteful finishing after they were beaten 2-0 by Northampton.
The Valiants had their chances in an even contest at Sixfields but were plunged deeper into relegation trouble by Mitch Pinnock’s sweet first-half strike and a stoppage-time second from Shaun McWilliams.
Vale remain in the relegation zone in League One, a point from safety, with six games to play.
“It’s bitterly disappointing,” said Moore. “We had as much of the play as they did but the game was decided on chances – they converted theirs, we didn’t convert ours.
“I thought we looked a bit on the back foot. I’m not sure if the game on Friday took it out of us so I’ll look into that, but the chances were there for us.
“We weren’t at our sharpest and we couldn’t capitalise in those key moments. I spoke to the boys at half-time about showing that ruthless mentality when you get chances.
“If you put those chances away it’s a different game and they were gilt-edged chances as well, but there was no real conviction when we did get in there and that’s really disappointing.
“The fact that their goalkeeper got man of the match tells you how the game went, but we have to move on quickly.
“Other results have gone our way but that’s only a very small consolation because we want to do it our way and not rely on other teams.”
The win took Northampton up to 56 points – the club’s highest tally in League One for 16 years – as they all-but secured safety.
“I’m pleased with the result and it took a lot of hard work from the boys against a team who are fighting for their lives and have won their last two,” said manager Jon Brady.
“To score two goals against them was really pleasing and now we’ve hit the target that we set for ourselves at the start of the season, which is really pleasing.
“The target was 54 points and there were various reasons behind that, so to eclipse that with four games to spare is a fantastic effort and it’s testament to the staff and the players.
“We’ve worked so hard all season and I was delighted with how the boys performed today. We changed shape to 3-4-3 to match their physicality and I thought the way we sat in our shape was really strong.
“We landed on second balls and broke on them well and that was really important, so overall I thought it worked and we deserved to win the game.”