Jon Brady believes fightback at Gillingham shows Northampton are still fighting

Posted Sunday, April 25, 2021 by PA

Interim boss Jon Brady said Northampton’s stunning 2-2 fightback at Gillingham was proof to the fans that his side are giving everything in their fight for League One survival.

The Cobblers looked to be staring the fourth tier in the face when former Northampton striker Vadaine Oliver opened the scoring for the Gills on 11 minutes and Olly Lee made it 2-0 22 minutes from time.

But substitute Ryan Edmondson sparked a late rally from the visitors with a 79th-minute strike before Fraser Horsfall’s equaliser four minutes later earned a point that leaves Brady’s men four from safety with two games to go.

Although the odds are still against his side surviving, the 46-year-old insisted no-one in the Northampton camp is going down without a fight, while dedicating their stunning second-half performance to the supporters watching at home.

“For me, the last 20 minutes shows anybody watching today how hard the players are fighting for this football club,” Brady said.

“Today was one for our fans; they can think: ‘hold on a minute, these boys are giving it everything’.

“I said to the players in the dressing room that I totally believe in the impossible and they’ve got to believe in it, too. While there’s a chance we’ve got to keep fighting.

“At 2-0 down today we were dead and buried, but we galvanised ourselves, the substitutes who came on did exceptionally well and we worked to stay in the game.

“At times we may not be the best team, but when we’re on the front foot, driving forward and playing with no fear, the boys can take on anybody in this league. We were close to winning it at the end there.”

Meanwhile Gillingham boss Steve Evans accepted his side’s play-off hopes are all but over, with the point leaving them five behind sixth-placed Blackpool who have played two games fewer.

And the 58-year-old blamed mistakes at both ends of the pitch for the Gills’ late capitulation, citing similar issues that saw Oxford come from behind to beat them 3-2 last weekend.

He added: “Overall, we’ve come so far from what was expected of us, but we’ve fallen just short. I’m here because I think we could take this team to the Championship. We could have gone up this year and that’s tough to take.

“We were very flat at Oxford last Saturday and we’re arguably more flat after today. There was one team in the game, we were 2-0 ahead and we could have been four or five ahead.

“We had four or five chances in the second half alone that we should have taken, but by the same token we have to defend properly as well.

“We’ve got one or two individuals who are continually making mistakes. I’ve seen people left unmarked in the box again, which is hugely disappointing.”