Brady admits under-par Cobblers had to 'grind out' victory against Carlisle

Cobblers boss Jon Brady did not let the margin of his side's 3-0 victory against Carlisle United gloss over the fact that his side had to work hard for all three points.

In the end, this was a routine home win at Sixfields but for 40 minutes, Town were struggling to impose themselves on the third-from-bottom visitors.

But a superb counter-attacking goal late in the first-half, finished off by Paul Lewis, led to a dominant performance in the second 45 minutes.

Lewis was the star with two more goals to complete a hat-trick as Cobblers made it four wins and four clean sheets in a row.

"It's good to get the points on the board and to have four wins in a row is really positive considering where we were at after Hartlepool," said Brady.

"It wasn't brilliant from us today but we got the job done. We were a little bit stretched in certain positions due to unavailability so we've had to deal with that.

"We came out at the start of the game and we weren't making good decisions and we didn't do the simple things right consistently.

"We had a word at half-time and I felt we were better in the second-half but we still weren't at our best.

"That's not a bad thing because you're not always going to be at your best but we were still very organised and very strong and to grind out wins like that, and make it look comfortable, is very pleasing.

"We probably needed a bit more freshness in there because we've played the same players for the last four of five games but we found a way to get the job done."