Brady believes Cobblers have lost their 'edge' after five games without a win

Cobblers boss Jon Brady believes his players have lost their ‘edge’ after going five games without a win.

Town are all-but safe in League One having already hit the 50-point mark this season, and there has been a notable drop-off in performance levels since reaching that milestone in the recent 1-1 draw at Cambridge United.

Cobblers have been below-par in four of their last five games – most notably in the 5-1 defeat against Peterborough United and again at Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday – and Brady admitted afterwards at Adams Park that they have not quite had the same intensity to their play.

"I’ve said it to the players – I feel it's a mindset thing,” he said. “We need our edge back. It's frustrating because I don't want the season to drift and we want to finish strong. We've put ourselves in a great position but we need to be better all over.

"We need that edge back. At the moment, I feel we've just lost that edge to our mindset and that edge in our play as well and I don't think that happens with winners. I don't think it does.

"You have to be relentless at this level and relentless with your own personal mindset and be connected as a team. I'm not saying we're not that but it's too easy at times and the goals we conceded against Wycombe, they shouldn't be going in.

"But they have gone in and we need to address that because we have one of the hardest challenges of all next weekend (Derby County) and maybe that's what we need. I'll pick a team that first and foremost will be ready to fight.

"It'll be a full house and it's a great challenge. We'll probably compartmentalise that as a one off game and it's a game that provides us with an opportunity to get back on track.”