Brady expecting Cobblers to be back to near their best after full week of training

Jon Brady is hoping the Cobblers can put their COVID troubles behind them with a positive performance and result against Crawley Town at Sixfields this weekend.

Northampton’s first game in 21 days ended in a heavy defeat at Swindon Town on Saturday.

But with a full week of training in the legs and players returning to their pre-COVID fitness levels, hopes are high for a sixth successive home win.

“The second-half on Saturday did not it even recognise or resemble us and that’s probably the most disappointing thing and the hardest thing to take,” said Brady.

“A lot of that was down to lack of fitness and a lack of conditioning but we will get that back this week.

“Preparation is key because you can’t not be diligent in your process.

“I don’t like to leave a stone unturned. You can’t just go out at a flip of a coin and hope it’s going to happen and hope you’re going to get a result.

“If you do all the work possible and you’re organised and you give all the information to the players, then you feel like you’re ready to take teams on.

“We could only do limited training last Friday because normally Friday is tapering down towards a game and it’s only a final preparation.

“We did our best and for 50 minutes, our output on the GPS was just below where it usually is but then between 50 minutes and 90 minutes, it dropped off the face of a cliff.

“That correlates to what happened in the game and ultimately it was our downfall because it ran away from us through our fitness levels.

“But we had a really strong day of training on Tuesday and that’s important and we need to get our fitness back to make sure we’re back to our best.”

COVID is still causing problems for clubs up and down the country, with Man City losing 19 first-team players and staff ahead of their FA Cup tie at Swindon this weekend.

"I think we have to try and learn to deal with it," Brady added.

"It's tough for players and it's tough for families but what else can we do? Another lockdown or do we push on?

"Until we're told otherwise, we have to do the best we can possibly do and keep going."