Happy Furlong revelling in first-team life at the Cobblers

The Queens Park Rangers youngster last week agreed to a second month at Sixfields, and there is the scope for that stay to be extended further in the future.

Furlong’s switch to Northampton has been good for the player and the team, with the Cobblers unbeaten in six league starts since Furlong and fellow defender Shaun Brisley, who is on loan from Peterborough, came to the club.

Furlong was again quietly impressive in the Cobblers’ 2-1 win over Hartlepool United at Sixfields on Saturday, and he is relishing the chance to play senior football, rather than in Under-21 League with the Hoops second string.

“It has been good since I have come to the club, and that’s not just the team, who have been great,” said Furlong, who made three appearances for the Rs first team in the Premier League at the back end of last season.

“For me it has also been a learning curve, I have been doing okay, and I have just enjoyed it and am going to continue to do so.

“It is all about first team football.

“Instead of playing against people my own age or a little bit older or younger, I am playing against men who have been in the game for a long time now.

“It is just a great experience for me.

“I learn little things from the senior players, little things like how they are conducting themselves.

“Then when it comes down to being on the pitch, they are always talking and giving me pointers and things like that, and it is very good.”

Furlong has yet to taste defeat in the league as a Cobblers player, with the only loss suffered by the team since he joined being in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at Millwall last week.

The team has won four and drawn two of the six games Furlong has played, and the 18-year-old admits he is determined to keep that run going.

“We want to keep it going as it has been so good since I got here and we don’t want to give it up, we want to push for the top places,” he said.

“It is crazy how tight it is up there, but to still not be in the top seven, or even the top three, is surprising, but it is okay, we will keep working at it.”

Next up for Furlong and the Cobblers is a trip across the county border to take on Cambridge United at the Abbey Stadium on Saturday, and Furlong is confident he and his team-mates can make it seven unbeaten.

“We are going to go there and try do the same thing again, do what we have been doing,” said the right-back. “Hopefully that will pay off for us.”

As it stands, Furlong’s current loan deal will expire on after the match against Mansfield Town on November 14, but as he is a youth loan, it is an arrangement that can be extended indefinitely, so the player could be at Northampton for a while longer yet.