Brighton loanee Marc Leonard 'could not have asked for more' from Cobblers and will be 'sad' to leave club

Cobblers midfielder Marc Leonard admits he will be ‘sad’ when he inevitably leaves Sixfields for good at the end of the season.

The Brighton loanee has become a favourite with supporters during his two highly impressive seasons at Northampton and is regarded by many as one of the most talented players to wear the shirt in the club’s recent history.

The 22-year-old played 48 times in all competitions last season and has already racked up another 45 appearances this term – including starting all 41 league games so far – but whilst everyone at Sixfields would love him to return for a third season, in reality he will be wanted by clubs in the Championship, if not the Premier League.

"I’ll be sorry to go,” admitted Leonard. “It’s been a blast. It’s been so good. I couldn’t have asked for much more from the staff, the players, the fans, everybody. It's felt like home ever since I first came here and I’ve really enjoyed it. It’ll be sad when I do go.

"That feeling of overachieving and being ambitious at this level is credit to the manager and the staff and that was a huge factor in my decision to come back at the start of the season.

"The club had that ambition that we wouldn’t go up against any team in this league and hope for a point or play for a draw. It was ‘right, we’re going here to get three points and we want to climb the table’. It was never about just surviving, we always wanted more and we still haven’t reached our target this season.”

Leonard was part of the Cobblers team that lost 1-0 to Reading on Good Friday but, like his manager, he felt his side performed well.

"I thought we played well,” he added. “Obviously we wanted the result but I think we carried out the game plan pretty well and if we had taken our chances and been more ruthless with our decision-making and combinations in and around the penalty box, we could have scored two or three goals.

"We’ll look to bounce back on Monday but it won’t be easy. Port Vale was probably one of our worst performances of the season so we want to right that wrong and we’d love to get three points.”