Brady explains Bolger's absence and says he 'loves Marshall to bits'

Cobblers captain Cian Bolger was dropped to the bench at Ipswich Town on Tuesday night to allow him to 'refresh and reset', according to caretaker boss Jon Brady.

The 28-year-old had missed only one league game previously this season and that was due to suspension having picked up five yellow cards.

But he was partly at fault for Wigan's winner last week and was also involved in the key moment against Burton Albion when goalkeeper Jonathan Mitchell picked up his back pass.

Bolger was then dropped to the bench for the trip to Portman Road as Fraser Horsfall came in to help keep a clean sheet alongside Lloyd Jones.

"He needs to refresh and reset," said Brady afterwards. "He will be immense for us going forward but sometimes you just need to refresh yourself and we all need to do that at times.

"That's all he needs to do."

Jones and Horsfall formed a strong partnership and only gave up once chance of note on Tuesday when Mitchell saved from James Norwood.

"Both looked strong and their distances were good," Brady added. "That was important tonight because our distances between units had to be strong.

"We had to be brave and I talk about that bravery. If our distances are good, we can smother opposition, we can close off passing lines and I felt we did that very well tonight.

"The two young lads were strong and brave."

Another man to have benefitted from Brady's appointment is winger Mark Marshall, who played the full 90 against Burton and lasted 70 minutes on Tuesday.

Brady said: "I was a wide man myself and I love him to bits. He's playing with intelligence, he's dropping into pockets and he's a hard player to mark.

"But we still need to free him up a bit more because I think he can do more offensively, I really believe that.

"But he's someone that, if we had our fans in the ground at home, he'd get them up off their seats and he'd excite you and that's what we want from our players."