Boss Brady glad to see the back of ‘brutal’ three months for Cobblers

Jon Brady admits he is delighted to see the back of a ‘brutal’ first three months of the season.

The Cobblers kicked off the new campaign back on July 30 with a 3-2 win over Colchester United.

In the 13 weeks that have followed, Town have played a further 20 matches, including eight midweek fixtures.

It has been an unrelenting schedule.

From now on though, barring any FA Cup replays, there are no more Tuesday night fixtures pencilled in until AFC Wimbledon come to Sixfields on February 14.

And that is a big relief to Brady, who believes the intensity of the first third of the campaign has caught up with his injury and suspension-hit squad in their past two home draws, 2-2 against Sutton United last Tuesday and then 1-1 against Newport County on Saturday.

“We are glad to get through this period, through August, September and October,” said the Town boss.

"October has been brutal, indeed the three months has been brutal.

“Hopefully now we can now get some bodies back through November and have a resemblance of our starting line-up."

The Cobblers have a free week ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup trip to Chesterfield, and that will be welcomed by Brady and his players, with Town again without six first teamers at the weekend due to a combination of players injured or banned

Referring to the draw with Newport, with Sam Hoskins rescuing a draw for Town with a dramatic stoppage time strike, the Australian admitted: “I felt we were leggy again, extremely leggy.

"Players like young Kieron Bowie, he needed a break, but we just don't have those options at the moment.

“It has been hard. With Aaron McGowan, I had to play him through that on Saturday to get his fitness back.

"The same with Sam Sherring, he had to play through it to get his fitness back so it is very disjointed.

"It feels disjointed, there was no fluidity to it on Saturday, and there didn't feel like there was any energy either.

"I knew we would probably have to go through a bit of pain with this to get players back and play them through it, and hopefully that is a real positive that we have got good minutes into a few.

"Now we don't have a midweek game we can start to work on a few things that we really need to work on, and get back to being us."

Despite dropping four points in their past two matches, the Cobblers remain in third place in Sky Bet League Two, two points clear of fourth-placed Swindon Town.

They are now seven points adrift of leaders Leyton Orient though, and four behind second-placed Stevenage.