Brady has 'utmost respect' for Cobblers ahead of Sixfields return
Port Vale boss Jon Brady says he has the ‘utmost respect’ for Northampton ahead of his first return to Sixfields since leaving the club 14 months ago.
Brady spent 200 games and nearly four years in charge of Cobblers, winning promotion in 2023, before he stepped away in December 2024. After a year out of the game, the 51-year-old Aussie replaced Darren Moore at bottom-of-the-table Vale last month.
Vale remain adrift at the foot of League One – currently 13 points from safety – after one win from Brady’s seven league games as manager, but he’s hoping to add another victory to his tally when he returns to familiar territory on Tuesday evening.
“I’m not going to lie, it will be really nice to go back,” he said. “But you want to get a win when you go back there. I have a job to do for our team. Going back there, once you cross the white line or stand out in the dug out, it’s game on and you want to win.
“But I have the utmost respect for the football club – incredible people and incredible owner. The CEO and the fans were incredible to me as well. It means a lot to go back but it means so much more for this football club if we can get the three points.”
Brady did not hide his frustration over the budget constraints he faced whilst in charge of Northampton, but he nonetheless only has positive things to say about the club and the hierarchy.
He added: “I have never met Kevin Nolan, but the chairman, Kelvin Thomas, is an amazing guy. He’s completely realistic and he understands their budget is probably below the red line. Their manager has done a brilliant job in making them really competitive. He (Thomas) doesn’t put pressure on their managers.
“He told me at the time if we went down I would still be the manager and bring them back up again. He was trying to take the pressure off me, knowing I put pressure on myself all the time."