King says Cobblers will not be outworked at Southend

Town head to Roots Hall in excellent shape at Sixfields - only Manchester United and Cardiff City have won more home league games this season - but struggling on the road.

On eight occasions the team has succumbed to away defeat this term with the most recent being the 3-1 loss at Rotherham 10 days ago in which a furious Aidy Boothroyd accused his team of being outworked by the hosts.

But King is confident such a statement will not be valid in Essex this weekend.

“It’s always difficult to say what’s going to happen in a football match,” he said.

“After 15 minutes of a game I’ve got a good idea what will happen but on the way to Southend I don’t know.

“There are so many little different twists and turns that mean you have to change the game plan you go in with, you can have someone sent off or concede a penalty.

“The gaffer said at Rotherham that he saw us outworked for the first time and that is something you can’t accept, that won’t happen again.

“The players worked their socks off against Rochdale so that’s one thing we’ve repaired.”

Boothroyd has hinted he will make tactical changes to the away-day set-up for the game at Southend, and that may mean a move away from the 4-5-1 system the team has played on their past three trips.

Leading goalscorer Adebayo Akinfenwa and Clive Platt both scored in the win over Rochdale last time out, and King is keen to praise their growing understanding.

“It was pleasing for Platty to get a goal - with Bayo it’s really just a question of how many goals he’s going to get for us this season,” he said.

“Platty is more of a team player who doesn’t get an enormous amount of goals so it was pleasing for them both to get on the scoresheet on Saturday.

“It’s a good combination. They react really well off each other and it works for us up front.”