Jon Brady praises injury-hit Northampton’s mentality after late winner

Northampton boss Jon Brady hailed the “incredible spirit” of his injury-ravaged team after a 2-1 win over Gillingham boosted their promotion hopes.

Louis Appere’s first-half opener for the Cobblers was cancelled out by substitute Aiden O’Brien in the second period, but Will Hondermarck’s superb strike eight minutes from time snatched a vital victory.

Northampton were missing 11 players through injury but the win kept them second in League Two and opened up a three-point gap over the three teams directly beneath them.

“It’s a good win for us and there is a great mentality within the group,” said Brady.

“To give away a goal so cheaply and then to fight our way back and find a winner with Will’s first ever senior goal, it was quite special.

“To get the three points was incredible considering the circumstances. We have players playing out of position but we are just finding a way to win games.

“There’s just an incredible spirit in the squad and an incredible mentality. I feel a lot of teams might have collapsed in that moment when we concede the goal because it’s a really sloppy goal to give away.

“But we fight our way back and we get the winner. It was a brilliant strike by Will for his first senior goal and he’ll always remember that.

“It just came at the right time for us. His first touch was fantastic and he stepped on to it brilliantly. It seemed to take an age to go in!”

Gillingham manager Neil Harris backed Northampton to win promotion after their defeat at Sixfields.

He said: “There’s a reason why Northampton are going to get promoted and that’s because they are one of the best teams in the league.

“It’s 1-1 after 82 minutes so there wasn’t a lot in the game but that wasn’t because we had played particularly well.

“It’s a great strike but do we get out of our box quick enough? Do we close the shot down? Do we give the ball away too cheaply in the build-up?

“These are the little things that are important to teams and that’s why teams that are at the top of the league do things consistently well.

“At this stage of the season it’s just about getting over the line in games and we did that against Doncaster but today we have lost a very close game.

“That’s been the case in League Two this season – close games. We made some poor decisions in the first half so we changed shape at half-time and I thought we looked better.

“We were improved in the second half and we had more control but I’m forming opinions all the time on these players and I will keep those to myself at the moment.”