Brady explains why McWilliams, Hoskins, Lintott and Burge missed Birmingham City friendly

Jon Brady has explained why Shaun McWilliams, Sam Hoskins, Lee Burge and Harvey Lintott did not take any part in Wednesday’s pre-season friendly against Birmingham City.

Town were beaten 1-0 by the Blues at Sixfields after Jordan James’ first half strike as a limited number of first-team players gained more minutes in their legs, with 10 absent.

McWilliams, Burge and Hoskins were left out for precautionary reasons while Lintott will be monitored after he felt a recurrence of the hip injury which kept him out for several weeks at the end of last season. Cobblers are hopeful that Manny Monthé, Jon Guthrie, Aaron McGowan and Ben Fox will play some minutes in the next couple of friendlies.

"Sam hasn't been well,” said Brady. “He picked up a little bug. He could have played tonight but we just thought it was best not to and we told him to rest up.

"Shaun took a bit of a knock on his Achilles at the weekend but we expect him to be available for Brackley or, if not then, Kidderminster next week.

"Harvey has had a recurrence of the hip problem he had at the end of last season so we'll just wait and see on that.

"Burgey just felt his groin a little bit so we took a precaution and young James Dadge played the full 90. He's a first year pro out of the youth team and I thought he did really well. He showed experience beyond his years.”