Brady laments 'uncharacteristic' mistakes from Cobblers in defeat to Salford

Cobblers boss Jon Brady admitted he was ‘frustrated’ by the ‘uncharacteristic’ nature of his side’s first-half performance during Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Salford City.

Town were run ragged by the hosts in a strangely open and loose first-half display and were somewhat fortunate to still be in the game at the break, trailing 2-1 to goals from Ethan Galbraith and Elliot Watt, who struck either side of Sam Hoskins.

The visitors were much better after half-time but could not find a leveller, with several key decisions going against them. The boggy, wet pitch also caused problems for both teams.

"We were lacking in the first-half,” admitted Brady. “Because of the pitch and how poor it was, I felt we didn't come out and have the confidence to play the way we normally try to play.

"As soon as we did that, and once we started to move the ball and play how we play, towards the end of the first-half and throughout most of the second-half, I thought we dominated the game.

"The first-half was a bit uncharacteristic of us in how we played, especially the goals we conceded. It was poor to concede from the corner, we do well to get ourselves back into the game, and then we concede again off a quick counter-attack where positionally we weren’t right.

"That was frustrating but what we didn’t do was put our heads down. We kept working and pushed and pushed and through that we had some decisions go against us.

"The pitch was difficult but both teams have to play on it and once we started to trust the surface, we were so much better and we dominated the second-half.”