Brady confirms reason for half-time changes against Grimsby

Jon Brady confirmed his decision to take off Louis Appéré at half-time and switch formation during Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Grimsby Town was for tactical reasons and not due to injury.

Cobblers rarely looked in trouble defensively in the first-half at Blundell Park but they created precious little in attack with Appéré and Danny Hylton ineffective as a front two, albeit not helped by the lack of accurate and quality service into them.

Appéré paid the price when withdrawn for fellow Scot Kieron Bowie at the break as Brady switched from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1 with Mitch Pinnock moved to the number 10 role, and the young Fulham loanee produced a lively cameo on the wing, the highlight of which was an excellent assist for Sam Hoskins’ 74th-minute opener.

"We just felt we weren’t getting the returns from Louis up top,” said Brady. “He needs to be better.

"We changed the shape and I think we got a foothold back into the game after half-time and, slightly, we started to get into the ascendency.

"There were a few other changes we made and we wanted to get some real out-and-out pace up top and I thought the changes worked because we looked a lot better.

"With Sam, we had a threat, and it was a great finish to put us 1-0 up. It would have been great to see it out."

Cobblers could not hold on as some heavy pressure from Grimsby eventually told with Jordan Maguire-Drew’s deserved late equaliser, but Brady is satisfied with four points from two games.

He added: "You look at some of the results today and there’s some favoured teams who aren’t even on a point at the moment – the league almost looks upside down a little bit.

"Again, as I have said before, this league will be really tough and there will not be any easy games for anyone. We will take four points from our first two games.”