Brady: Cobblers 'nowhere near the finished article' after 'jolt' of Stamford defeat

Jon Brady admitted Saturday's 2-1 friendly defeat to non-league Stamford might be a well-timed 'jolt' for the Cobblers.

The tier eight outfit restricted Northampton to few chances and took a two-goal lead into half-time through Cameron Johnson and James Blunden.

Benny Ashley-Seal pulled one back with a terrific finish 10 minutes into the second-half, but Town created little and laboured to defeat.

It was a makeshift squad that made the short trip north as several first-team regulars missed out due to self-isolation. Two trialists, Jay Williams and Josh Debayo, also featured and eight changes were made at half-time.

"It was a real physical work-out for us," said Brady. "I was really impressed by them - their physicality was very good and very strong, especially for a pre-season game, so it was a really good test for us.

"I really liked the way they went about it, they had the right attitude and approached it like a matchday, not a pre-season friendly, but it was the type of test that we needed and it was maybe a bit of a jolt that we needed as well, so it was good.

"We're halfway through pre-season but we're still trying to make sure the full group get at least 45 minutes each so there was a lot of chopping and changing - we're nowhere near the finished article."