Brady 'stressed' by injury situation after Hoskins, McWilliams and Sherring miss Lincoln City win

Manager Jon Brady admits he is finding it ‘stressful’ to navigate his way through the Christmas period due to both the manic schedule and the club’s worsening injury situation.

Cobblers play four games in 10 days and they do so with a lengthening injury list. Numerous players were already absent for Boxing Day’s trip to Stevenage where Sam Sherring limped off after just 22 minutes as an out-of-sorts Town team were soundly beaten 3-0.

Sherring then missed Friday’s impressive win over Lincoln City and was joined on the sidelines by Sam Hoskins and Shaun McWilliams, both of whom were not in the squad due to unspecified injuries. Ben Fox, Ali Koiki, Louis Appéré and Tyler Magloire are also currently in the treatment room.

That meant rare starts for Will Hondermarck and Tyreece Simpson at Sincil Bank and the pair both played their part in an excellent team performance as Cobblers signed off 2023 with victory.

"Again we had to make changes to the back-line,” said Brady. “It's stressful and it's tough. If you look back before the Stevenage game, we saw a statistic that we had used only 13 players over a six or seven game period. Stevenage were able to use 19.

"With our injury situation, we have to keep playing the same players and I felt with the physicality of Stevenage game, it was just so tough and maybe we just didn't have the energy for that game, but Stevenage were excellent so credit to them.

"But to come here tonight and to patch ourselves up, and to win with the players that were missing, it's testament to the whole group. I’m really proud of the boys.”

Cobblers play again on Monday when they host resurgent Cheltenham Town, but Brady did not go into detail in response to being asked about the nature of the injuries to Hoskins, McWilliams and Sherring, adding: "We're still waiting to hear the verdicts on those players. It was weighing on me and that's why it was such a release at the end of the game.

"We have another game in just three days and the emotion of Lincoln will be gone within 15 minutes because this period of the season is relentless and it's such a quick turnaround.”