Brady shocked by 'uncharacteristic' Cobblers display in midweek defeat to Barrow

Cobblers boss Jon Brady confessed he was surprised by the 'uncharacteristic' way his team were beaten by Barrow in midweek.

A second-half header from Aaron Amadi-Holloway dealt a significant blow to Town's promotion hopes on a poor night at Sixfields.

The Cobblers, usually full of energy and vigour even when not at their best, started sluggishly and were strangely flat throughout.

"You could see in the first 20 minutes that Josh (Eppiah) looked really sharp and bright but he was our only bright spark in that 20 minutes," said Brady.

"He was really pressing hard but it was unusual and uncharacteristic for us because we didn't support him on that press. That was really disappointing and at times I felt like I was having to drag the boys forward.

"That was hard and it was disappointing to see."

The visit of Barrow was the first time Cobblers have gone Saturday-Tuesday since they returned from COVID at Christmas.

"I wouldn't make excuses for anything," Brady added. "If we're to do anything this season, we have to be consistently strong in our performance.

"To go from the weekend's performance, where we were really good in the first-half and then managed the conditions in the second-half, to what happened on Tuesday was frustrating.

"I had to change shape after 15 or 20 minutes just to make sure we got a foothold in the game and when we did change shape, I felt we were much better.

"But the change meant that we didn't have specific players in the right positions. It wasn't round pegs in round holes as such.

"We made some changes in the second-half but when they're sitting that deep like they did, we didn't get round the back of them and we didn't threaten their goal and that was the disappointing thing."

One of few positives was debutant Bez Lubala's lively cameo.

Brady continued: "I've been a wide player myself and it's very hard when the opposition are sitting back like Barrow did.

"Sometimes you need to put in earlier crosses and we talked to the boys about doing that but we took too many touches at times and didn't get the ball in the box enough.

"Bez showed some good glimpses of skill. He will really come up to speed over the next two or three weeks. He hasn't played in over a year so for him to come on and look quite lively and sharp and probably be one of our brighter sparks was pleasing."