Brady discusses the 'headaches' he had to deal with during 'stressful' morning before depleted Cobblers beat Swindon

Jon Brady admits the hours leading up to Saturday’s game at Swindon Town were ‘stressful’ after he was left with ‘a few headaches’ due to three players pulling out of the squad at the last minute.

Max Dyche was first to go down with illness before Josh Eppiah and top scorer Sam Hoskins pulled out on the morning of the game. Cobblers then lost Ali Koiki to a head injury late in the first-half.

With key trio Shaun McWilliams, Tyler Magloire and Aaron McGowan already out through injury, Cobblers are down to the bare bones, making Saturday’s 2-1 comeback victory all the more impressive.

Brady said: "There were obviously a few headaches when I got some phone calls very early on this morning, about 7 o'clock, and found out that Sam was not well and then I found out about Josh about 45 minutes after that. Max had been ill on Friday so there might be a bit of an illness going through the team at the moment and that meant we were already hugely stretched again.

"Ali then had to come off in the first-half so that was seven players out and our squad is quite small anyway. We are stretched to the absolute limit at the moment.

"I was having to put AK (Akin Odimayo) on right near the end but he probably shouldn't be going on because he’s not quite ready. But I had to pull him into the squad and fingers crossed he has come through it unscathed.”

Brady’s best laid plans went out of the window just hours before kick-off. Ryan Haynes started his first league game for the club out of position on the wing before Louis Appéré moved there due to Koiki’s injury.

Brady added: "I spoke to the staff and we set out what we wanted to do because obviously we had prepared a certain way but we needed to think again and make changes and find a way and we did that.

"It's quite stressful because that's seven players out now. Who knows if they will be back for Tuesday.”

Koiki was taken off with a swollen face, not concussion.