Brady reveals 'awful decision' he had to make before Cobblers' draw with Tranmere Rovers

Jon Brady admitted it was an ‘awful decision’ to have to drop young defender Harvey Lintott from his matchday squad for Saturday’s League Two fixture with Tranmere Rovers at Sixfields.

The Cobblers manager was able to name his strongest starting XI and bench of the season with only two players – Tyler Magloire and Ali Koiki – absent due to injury.

But the quality of players at Brady’s disposal and the need to have balance on the bench meant 19-year-old Lintott, who has impressed since joining Northampton on trial in the summer, did not make the 18.

"It was an awful decision that I had to make before the game,” admitted Brady. “In a way it's a good decision to have as a manager but it's also an awful decision and I told Harv how bad I felt about leaving him out of the squad.

"He's a young lad who has come in after being discarded by another club in this league and he's been brilliant for us and he's a good player for now and the future.

"I would say that's the first time this season that I've had the luxury of leaving out a player like him and I old him it was a hard one to sleep on the night before the game."

With Cobblers struggling to break down Tranmere’s stubborn resistance at Sixfields on Saturday, Brady could turn to the likes of Josh Eppiah, Danny Hylton and Louis Appéré in pursuit of a winner, albeit to no avail.

He added: "In the end I felt we had the balance right on the bench and we got Josh on for 15 minutes and I thought he linked well and created some good moments.

"That's his first 15 minutes in seven or eight weeks so to do what he did was really good and we wanted to go for it so we threw caution to the wind and put Sam (Hoskins) in the middle of midfield.

"We put a lot of attacking players on and it was nice to be able to do that.”