Brady impressed by Tomlinson after teenager breaks Toney's record

A little bit of Cobblers history was made on Tuesday evening when Josh Tomlinson became the club's youngest ever player.

The centre-back, aged just 15 and 336 days, beat Ivan Toney's previous record by the best part of a year when taking to the field against Brighton U21s in the Papa John's Trophy.

Tomlinson is no stranger to playing alongside older opponents having been promoted to the youth team as a 13-year-old.

Jon Brady was the U18s head coach at the time and he was also the man who handed Tomlinson his Cobblers debut on Tuesday.

The teenager's performance, assured and composed alongside Dominic Revan at the heart of defence, belied his tender years.

"Ian Sampson and I spoke about a year and a half ago when we played him as a 13-year-old in a youth team game because he was that good at the time," explained Brady.

"Even when he went on to be 14, Josh played four years above his age group so he played a lot of games for me when I was youth team manager.

"He plays way above his years in what he does and how he goes about. His physicality is strong and we saw that on Tuesday.

"He hardly put a foot wrong, his distribution was good and he read the game well. He's also very old school.

"For Josh to play the way he did, we're so pleased for him and he deserved the opportunity to play for the first-team."