Brady says Cobblers will be 'hugely rewarded' by showing patience with youthful squad this season

Manager Jon Brady has stressed the importance of staying patient and the need to potentially ‘ride through’ some tough moments this season due the amount of young players in Cobblers’ squad.

The average age of Northampton’s squad is under 25, making it one of the youngest in the whole division, and the inconsistencies and frustrations of youth have already been on display this season, particularly in Tuesday’s cup defeat to Wycombe.

There was both good and bad on show at Sixfields but Brady accepts that comes with the territory with young players and there will be a balance to be struck between doing all he can to win games whilst also developing individuals to the club’s long-term benefit.

"Patience is key,” said Brady. “You have to reinforce our principles and what we want and at times you have to help them with their decision-making and composure.

“You can’t get carried away with the state of the game and start using the ball in a way we don’t really want it to be used so there has to be patience at times and I’m finding that at the moment.

"On Tuesday, I think we had eight players under 24 and the average age of the squad was under 23. We will keep working with them and ride through it then when they start making better decisions more consistently, it will bode well for us for the future.”

Brady is bracing himself for a challenging season on the training pitch, but it’s something he relishes.

He added: "My motivation is to develop and improve players and that’s the same for Marc (Richards), Colin (Calderwood), James (Alger), all of the staff here. We are all hugely motivated to do that.

"We feel that it is our strength to improve players and we have to make that our super strength this season. We will find, at times, tough moments as coaches but we have to stick to our beliefs and really work hard.

"This might be one of the most challenging years but we will really help guide and work with those players because I think it will be hugely rewarding by the end of it.”