Brady staying positive after playing down concerns over Cobblers' goal return

Jon Brady does not believe Cobblers' shortage of goals from open play is a major cause for concern.

Town have netted 14 goals from open play this season - the third lowest figure in the league - but 16 from set-pieces, the highest, plus three penalties.

"You can put a stat any way you want," said Brady. "We're the best by far at set-pieces.

"Those stats didn't come up after the game on Saturday, did they? People might want to be negative but let them be negative. We know how positive we are within the group and what what we're doing to make sure we are the best we can be.

"We want to improve all types of goals, not just from open play, and we work constantly on how we can exploit the opposition and then it comes down to the quality of the delivery and the quality of the strike.

"We are up there in the top half for big chances missed so we have got ourselves into a lot of goalscoring positions but we haven't executed it right.

"In the first-half against Salford on Saturday, we probably played some of the best football our home fans have seen for a long, long time. I thought we were exceptional with the way we moved the ball.

"We had the polar opposite on Tuesday but sometimes you have to accept - and it can be hard to accept - that you have these peaks and troughs in a season and we just need to make sure that was only a blip and we're back at it and ready for Saturday."

Brady's comments came at his press conference on Thursday, two days after Tuesday's defeat to Barrow.

"It was a bit of a head-scratcher but I don't think we have had too many of those moments this season," Brady added.

"Over 46 games, you will have peaks and troughs and that was certainly a trough for us, but if you look at it overall, I feel we have given our fans some fantastic moments so far this season.

"We have dominated possession, crosses and the shot count against every opposition in the last few games. Even on Tuesday, we dominated possession, but there was no real purpose.

"The way we execute needs to be better at times. You will come up against opponents like Barrow who come to spoil the party and we fell into the trap a little bit.

"But we've reflected on it and we've had a strong day of training and we're going to make sure we put it right."