Brady hints duo might not start against Rochdale as Town boss looks to manage players through busy period

Cobblers caretaker boss Jon Brady has suggested neither Alan Sheehan nor Mickel Miller will be ready to start tonight's crunch fixture against Rochdale.

Miller played the final 20 minutes at MK Dons on Saturday after missing four weeks with a hamstring problem, while Alan Sheehan, also returning from injury, was a stoppage-time substitute.

Both could be key men for the Cobblers in their battle to beat the drop this season, however neither will be rushed back into the team.

"It's a bit different nowadays," said Brady. "Probably 10 years ago, when you were declared fit, you were fit and you could play 90 minutes.

"But now, you have to introduce players for so many minutes and that's the trade-off you have because you must listen to the staff around you.

"We need to be careful because although we need them right now, there's still 17 more games to go and we've got to do it right so we have them available for as many of those games as possible.

"We're not going to put them in a position where we might risk not having them for the future so we've got to speak to our staff and find that balance, but we need them as well so it's all weighing that up into consideration."

With Sheehan and Miller back from injury, Brady suddenly has some tricky decisions to make when it comes to naming his matchday squad. On Saturday, Michael Harriman, Ricky Korboa and Benny Ashley-Seal were all left out.

However, that depth is also extremely useful during this busy stage of the season. Tonight's game is Town's fifth of seven successive Tuesday fixtures.

"It's never nice to leave out players who have worked extremely hard," admitted Brady. "But it is a great thing to have that luxury and to have balance within the team is so much better for selection.

"We do have some players who have played a lot of minutes and fatigue will have set in on a few so it's about how we train and how we look after a few individuals to make sure they're ready for matchday.

"It might mean treating some players in one way and other players in a different way to really make sure we get them firing for matchday and that's where we talk about getting the balance right.

"We have to pull on the knowledge of our staff and we work closely together. We'll sit down and crunch the numbers and make sure we get that right."

Although this week is undoubtedly a big one for Town, Brady will not place too much pressure on his players.

He added: "Every week is a big week but right now we're focused on the game ahead and we're focused on creating a positive performance and a positive result against Rochdale.

"You have to play what's in front of you. You can't look too far ahead. We might plan ahead but we're very focused on Rochdale."