Brady 'very excited' to see Hondermarck in action after revealing Cobblers nearly signed him last January

Manager Jon Brady says he’s ‘very excited’ to see William Hondermarck in action for the Cobblers after confirming the club narrowly missed out on signing him 12 months ago.

The 22-year-old was close to joining Northampton on loan from then-Championship club Barnsley during the January transfer window last year before his parent club backed out of the move late in the day.

Brady never gave up hope of signing the imposing central midfielder though and he finally got his man last week when Hondermarck put pen to paper on a two-and-a-half-year contract at Sixfields.

He is on his way back from injury and was not quite fit enough to feature at Barrow on Saturday, but Brady has liked what he’s seen in training and the former Republic of Ireland U21 international could be involved this weekend.

"We have been monitoring Will for a long time,” said Brady. “We very nearly got him in last January but just missed out at the last minute.

"We have tracked him ever since and watched his performances and Col (Colin Calderwood) has been to see him live several times.

"He's at the end of his recovery because he took a slight injury and has been out for over a month so he's definitely one for the longer term, but he'll also be huge in the immediate term.

"But what we need to do is get him conditioned right and get him up to speed and I think this week will be a good week for him to do that.

"He did get on the grass and was involved on Thursday and Friday and yeah, I'm very excited to see Will play."