Brady frustrated by players not carrying out instructions during Cobblers' defeat to Doncaster Rovers

Cobblers boss Jon Brady expressed his frustration at ‘certain players’ not carrying out instructions during Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Doncaster Rovers.

Town, who were beaten by George Miller’s second-half penalty, never found their flow and laboured in possession at Sixfields, but they generally remained disciplined off the ball in limiting the visitors to few clear chances from open play.

However, Adam Clayton caused problems with his passing in a deep central midfield role while Lee Tomlin dictated play further up the pitch. Clayton attempted more passes than anyone else on the pitch and Tomlin won the decisive penalty midway through the second-half, brought down by Shaun McWilliams.

Cobblers did have a plan to deal with both men but they struggled to carry it out. "Clayton is like a quarterback,” said Brady afterwards. “He picks it up and his passing is on point but we had a plan to nullify him and certain players at certain times in certain parts of the pitch were supposed to lock him off but didn't.

"It only took me really getting into a few at half-time to make sure we did. We needed to do that because of the threat he can pose and how he can unlock a defence.

"But, unfortunately, if you are not going to take things on board, you won't get those opportunities to play.”

Cobblers only played with the required intensity after going behind, and they so nearly scored another late goal when Danny Hylton’s stoppage-time header dropped a fraction wide of the post.

"I thought the header was in,” admitted Brady. “But it's a sign of a good striker that the next chance he gets, he'll put in the net. It's as simple as that. We don't harp on about it.

"We just move onto the next one and we all know we will have better days. This is one of the unfortunate bumps in the road that you get but it's still been a strong start. We know where we fell down today."