Brady believes Cobblers need to improve in all areas of the pitch - but one more than most

Whilst his side have made an encouraging start to the season, Cobblers boss Jon Brady believes there are improvements needed in all departments, particularly in the final third.

Brady was generally delighted with his side’s performance against Cheltenham Town in Saturday’s 1-0 win as they dominated possession and territory for long spells before Sam Hoskins popped up with an 88th minute winner.

However, for all their good play and control of the ball, Cobblers did not create too many clear-cut chances at Whaddon Road and took a lot of their shots from speculative positions.

"I just feel when we get in the box that we can take shots a little earlier,” said Brady. “We're not doing that or we're taking too many touches at times but that'll come. We've hit the woodwork five times in five games.

"There were two great set-pieces that we've worked on and were so close for us. The first one was with Shez's (Sam Sherring) header against the crossbar and the other one with Mitch (Pinnock) with his delivery. We only need a scratch on that and it goes in.

"There were some really good aspects to our performance and having watched it back, I'm really pleased and really happy with how we played, but the tests will keep coming and every week is a work in progress."

A little guile and creativity in the final third is about all that’s been missing from Northampton’s performances so far this season, but Brady’s confident that will come over the next few weeks and months.

"We do want to be a little more incisive and clinical in the final third but we're always working on that,” he added. “We still need that final edge to us, which would be the icing on the cake.

"You can't always have everything and what we're trying to do is keep building and keep improving and if we do keep improving, I feel that would be a start for us.

"With the amount of shots we have had, I think we can be better in our decision-making whether to take those shots on or find the spare player or take it earlier. All those things come down to making the right decision in the moment and we have done a lot of work highlighting that.

"We're getting into that final third, which is hugely important, but there are so many variables in football. You can show players pictures and talk about but in the moment, they have to make the decision.”