Brady believes there is 'no pressure' on Cobblers as promotion battle nears climax

Jon Brady has repeated his belief that there is ‘no pressure’ on the Cobblers as the League Two automatic promotion battle builds towards a crescendo.

Following Saturday’s comeback victory over Harrogate Town at Sixfields, Cobblers need either one win or two draws from their final two games of the season to guarantee a top-three finish and seal a return to League One.

Only five teams – Stevenage, Stockport, Carlisle, Bradford and Mansfield – can currently catch them. Three of those sides have games in hand, two of whom play on Tuesday with Stevenage at Swindon and Mansfield hosting champions Leyton Orient.

Brady’s injury-besieged side have already matched last season’s tally of 80 points but he knows as well as anyone that they can’t leave anything to chance and still have a job to do.

"To get 160 points across two years is pretty good but obviously we have to keep chipping away because there are still two games to go and that's our focus,” said the Town boss, who admits he still has ‘scars’ from how last season ended.

"With the context of everything and the bodies we have unavailable, like I said before, there's no pressure on this group at all. We will give everything we've got but what will be will be.

"There are two games left and other teams have got to win so the pressure is on everyone else. We don't need pressure on ourselves. We have been doing this with a very depleted squad but everyone is stepping up to the table and giving everything they've got and that's all you can ask for.

Town were a long way from their best against Harrogate on Saturday but still pulled off a spirited fightback thanks to goals from David Norman, Sam Hoskins and Kieron Bowie.

"There was some really good play for the goals,” Brady added. “It showed real character with the pressure and the context and who we have available at the moment.

"The same players are playing week in, week out. You want to get the performances right but ultimately we have turned around a deficit and you saw how hard that was for Arsenal the other night and they are a top, top team.

"We had to manage the game and I think we did that really well in the second-half. I don't think they had too many chances once we went 3-1 up and we did what we had to do.”