Brady delighted with his side's promising performance in friendly defeat to Forest

Cobblers boss Jon Brady was encouraged with his side's performance after their 2-0 friendly defeat against Nottingham Forest.

Town, playing close to a first-choice starting line-up for the first time, started on top and carried on that momentum for the rest of the first-half against their Championship visitors.

But they did not get the rewards for their good play and Forest made their superior quality tell in the second-half thanks to goals from Lyle Taylor and Cafu.

But Brady was not fazed by the result and instead took plenty of positives from his side's performance.

"We were playing against a very good Championship side and it's not about the result at this stage of pre-season, it's about us getting another 60, 70 minutes under our belt as a team," said the Town boss.

"We put more of a solid squad out there tonight and there was a lot more energy and I thought we were connected all over and I felt we looked good.

"We've been steady in our progress in terms of the minutes we're giving the players with lots of 45 minutes and mixed squads but that was the first time we put a more knitted squad together.

"For me, the way we started the game, we really set the tempo for the game - I know the referee well and even as he said to me, it didn't feel like a pre-season game, especially in the first-half.

"We had them camped in their half for a lot of the first-half, we created a few chances and I thought we looked really good."