Boss Wilder: There’s more to come from in-form Cobblers

The Cobblers have now won four of their past six games to close in on the early front runners at the top of League Two, but though Wilder was satisfied with his side’s general performance against the Pools, there were elements he felt could have been better.

Northampton should have racked up a more convincing victory but despite squandering several chances, two early goals were enough to take the spoils.

Rakish Bingham’s goal on 30 minutes did make for a more scrappy and tense second half as Northampton dominated possession without posing too much of a threat.

And Wilder was disappointed that his side didn’t create more given how much of the ball they enjoyed.

He said: “We were comfortable in the second half but I still felt we needed a third goal.

“They sat pretty deep and we just had to move the ball a little bit quicker. When we did that, we got around the back of them, but we have to keep moving it quickly.

“We were patient when we had to be but I was barking us to play forward a little bit quicker and into the front men, but we’ve won the game and that’s all that counts.

“There was also a lack of discipline because we looked to put someone on the goalkeeper and pin him back but that wasn’t happening in the second half.

“But there were a lot of positive performances out there and our energy levels were good and the way we played was good.

“It’s three points. There’s no gimmes in League Two football and the last time we had a type of game like this (Dagenham), we came unstuck.

“We’re now in the middle of a decent run and we have to keep it going.”

Wilder also offered some insight into Lawson D’Ath’s omission from the starting line-up.

D’Ath was a surprise absentee on Saturday with Chris Hackett coming in for a rare start, and Wilder confirmed at full-time that D’Ath picked up a minor knock prior to Tuesday’s defeat to Millwall but had failed to mention it to the coaching staff.

The Cobblers boss added: “He played on Tuesday and possibly shouldn’t have done. We had a chat and we have to make sure we’re sensible because I know players always want to play games.

“He missed out on Saturday because he played on Tuesday and we didn’t really need to take a chance with him and I’ve told him that.

“He’s a young boy who’s learning. He wants to play - they all want to play every minute of every game - so we talked about it and he knows. It’s all a learning curve.

“He should have flagged that up to us and we would never have taken the chance on Tuesday night to play him and he would have been fit for Saturday.

“A lot of preparation goes into every game and we have to keep doing the right things at the right time.

“We picked the team on Thursday and we prepared on Thursday and Friday to go and get a positive result and we’ve got that.”