Brady expecting tough St Mirren test as Cobblers get down to work in Scotland

Cobblers boss Jon Brady says tonight’s friendly with St Mirren is all about building up the fitness levels of his players.

Northampton are currently based at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and will play their first proper friendly of pre-season this evening against the SPL side. They beat Nottingham Forest U23s 2-1 in a practice match on Saturday which was played across six 15-minute periods.

St Mirren are significantly further ahead in their preparations and start their Scottish League Cup campaign against Arbroath on Saturday.

"We are looking forward to the game against St Mirren,” said Brady. “They asked us on Friday night and we wanted to do play the friendly so it helps them out and helps us out as well. It’s good for both parties and we’re really looking forward to it.

"We’re still building the minutes with the players. It will probably be another 45 tonight for most players tonight so it will be heavily mixed squads in the two halves because we are just looking to build our fitness and build foundations.

"St Mirren are probably three or four weeks ahead of where we are at the moment but for us it’s about getting more minutes in our legs and it’s a chance for the new players to get an understanding of how we want to play and the way we like to do things.”

Cobblers spent their first day at the University of St Andrews on Tuesday and will be based there until the weekend.

"It’s been really good,” Brady added. “The facilities here are fantastic and the surface is excellent. It’ll be a tough week but we are looking forward to it.

"We will finish off with another practice match on Friday but it’s mainly about embedding our philosophy and how we want to play and what we want to do. It’s also about knitting the group together both on and off the pitch – I feel that’s really important.

"We obviously had strong team spirit last season and we still have the majority of that group here and I feel that continuity is important. The new players will be welcomed in and for us as staff we want to make sure our team is together as one. That’s what we did last season and that’s what we will aim to do next season.”

Nonetheless, work will continue on strengthening the squad further following Sam Sherring’s arrival earlier this afternoon.

"It’s been pretty relentless,” Brady continued. “There’s a plenty of hard work that’s got us to where we are at the moment but there’s still a lot to do. It was actually quite enjoyable for me today (Tuesday) because I could finally get on the grass and get my head out of a laptop!”