Jon Brady says ‘two bad decisions from referee’ cost Northampton dear in defeat

Northampton boss Jon Brady was left fuming at the officials after claiming “two bad decisions” cost his side during their 1-0 home defeat to Wycombe.

Richard Keogh scored the only goal after five minutes at Sixfields but Brady felt the initial free-kick in the build up should never have been awarded.

His side went on to dominate the rest of the game, taking 20 shots to Wycombe’s seven, but they were unable to turn their pressure into goals.

“It’s a tough one to come away from that game and not have anything to show for our efforts but it’s two poor decisions from the referee,” said Brady.

“It’s not a free-kick in the first place and then when the ball comes in, Kieron (Bowie) gets back on the line to head it out but (Garath) McCleary and Keogh are on the line with him and they’re both offside.

“We don’t defend it right because Mitch (Pinnock) gets a nick on the ball when he goes to clear it and Max (Thompson) has to adjust at the last second but Kieron does brilliantly on the line and it should be offside.

“The officials got it wrong and we were two bad decisions from taking at least a point. We totally dominated, we pulled them apart and it was just the execution in the penalty box that let us down.”

Wycombe manager Matt Bloomfield admitted it was far from the ideal performance by his side but he felt delighted to make it successive away wins.

He said: “It’s been a tiring week but I think the boys showed real character and grit. It probably wasn’t the performance we wanted in terms of how the game went.

“But we got the early goal and we showed the determination to see that through and it’s obviously very pleasing to get another win away from home.

“We were chuffed to start on the front foot but I think it might have impacted the psychology of the game and we changed formation a couple of times to try and get a foothold in the game.

“We’re happy with the result but you always want more, but the lads were excellent in the way we went about it tactically and a lot of their shots came from outside of the box.

“We knew they would do that because Northampton like to take a lot of shots with the likes of Sam Hoskins and Mitch Pinnock but I felt like we kept them at arm’s length.

“The subs came on and made a big difference in the second half so it was a real squad effort today and I’m really pleased with that.”