Brady believes there should be 'no expectation' on Cobblers to win promotion due to crazy injury list

Manager Jon Brady believes there should be ‘no expectation’ on the Cobblers to win automatic promotion from League Two this season due to their seemingly never-ending injury issues.

Eleven first-team players missed Saturday’s 2-0 win at Doncaster Rovers, 10 through injury. Tom King was on international duty with Wales while Akin Odimayo (hamstring), Sam Sherring (ankle), Tyler Magloire (knee), Ali Koiki (hamstring), Max Dyche (ankle), Shaun McWilliams (groin), Ben Fox (ankle), Josh Harrop (unknown), Josh Eppiah (knee) and Danny Hylton (unknown) are all in the treatment room.

Nevertheless, Northampton still pulled out a third successive victory in South Yorkshire as goals at the start of each half from Mitch Pinnock and Sam Hoskins fired them above both Stevenage and Carlisle and up into second place.

"I think I saw a stat that we have lost 17 players since the Salford game live on Sky in January,” said Brady. “Some have come back in, gone back out, come back in and then gone back out again.

"For us, right now, there shouldn't be any expectation at all because these players are doing incredibly well and we are just going to keep enjoying this run. Any team in this league would struggle with the amount of injuries we have had – we were without 12 players today.”

Brady downplayed the importance of going second, adding: "I don't think so, not really. We know what we have to try and do and we just keep chipping away at what we need to do.

"I'm not even going to look at that (the table) and get involved, it's about chipping away and then hopefully we will be where we want to be by the end of the season.”

Saturday’s results set up a juicy round of fixtures next weekend with Stevenage heading to Sixfields, Leyton Orient hosting Carlisle United and Salford City visiting Stockport County.

"It's just another game towards what we want to do,” Brady continued. “There's eight to go now and we have to keep ticking off the games.

"Like I said, there's no expectation on us at all. We will just go and enjoy the next game at home and we need our fans right behind us – they will be really important again.”