Jon Brady wants Northampton fans to stick with his bunch

Posted Sunday, September 04, 2022 by PA

Northampton boss Jon Brady has urged fans to ‘stick with us’ after his side overcame a slight blip by beating Barrow 3-1 at Sixfields on Saturday.

The Cobblers lost at home to Doncaster last weekend and were then thumped 6-0 by Ipswich in midweek but recovered from a shaky start on Saturday to defeat Pete Wild’s in-form team in Sky Bet League Two.

Sam Hoskins scored his eighth goal of the season after only five minutes but it was a quickfire burst at the start of the second half which ultimately won the game as both Kieron Bowie and Tyler Magloire headed in.

Brady said: “It was a ding-dong affair, wasn’t it? You have to given Barrow credit because they are a very good side. They run hard, they work hard, they are very intense and they try and break your back-line with a lot of pace.

“We had to be better at locking them off than we were in the first half because they got behind us a few times and the game was on a bit of a knife-edge at half-time.

“We discussed a couple of things at half-time because I felt we could be a lot more intense in certain phases of the game.

“But we got a reaction and to come out and get that goal straightaway, it gave us a bit of confidence. It was a great first time cross by Ali (Koiki) and a fantastic header from Kieron and then it was really good to finally get a goal from a corner.

“To win against a good side who have been blowing most teams away is really pleasing. It was a real hard-fought win.”

Brady is trying to evolve Northampton’s style with a young squad this season and he admits that will inevitably lead to blips along the way, but 14 points from their opening seven games represents a good start.

He continued: “We are opening up a bit more and playing more. We need to get the balance right but just stick with us because the average age of the team today was 23 and there will be plenty of ups and downs.

“We might crash and burn at times but we have got players for the future of this football club.”

Meanwhile, Barrow suffered just their second defeat of the season at Sixfields and will rue their sloppy start to both halves.

“It was a game where not a lot went on,” said Bluebirds boss Wild. “The difference is they have taken their chances and they were ruthless at the start of both halves.

“All their goals have come from three things that we are usually good at – defending our own box, stopping tackles and winning tackles. We are good at those things so that’s really frustrating.

“Not a lot else happened in the game. It was a good finish by Josh for the goal and I thought in the first half we caused them a lot of problems and had them on the back foot but they have been ruthless, so fair play to them.

“Coming in at half-time, I wanted more of the same but to concede a minute into the second half was frustrating because in those first 15 minutes, away from home, you have to be on it and keep the home team down but we did not do that.

“I think it frustrates me more than anything that we let ourselves down on things we are normally really good at, but we won’t rip it up and start again.

“We have shown we can match teams who will be at the top end of the table.

“We just have to learn from our mistakes. We are nowhere near the finished article.”

Wild felt his side should have had a penalty when Robbie Gotts fell to ground under Magloire’s challenge shortly after Northampton made it 3-1.

He added: “There was a lot of talk from their bench, shouting about us diving, but we watched the video back and Robbie has clearly been brought down in the box. The referee is 10 yards away but hasn’t seen it, so that’s frustrating.”