Cobblers 'actively talking' to targets

Ethan Wheatley was confirmed as Northampton’s 13th summer signing last week but he won’t be the last through the door at Sixfields before the window shuts on September 1st. The strongest current rumour is that the club have had a bid rejected for 26-year-old Accrington winger Tyler Walton, who scored in Stanley’s opening day draw with Gillingham.

"We're actively talking to players to try and improve the squad and to help the squad and to make us stronger,” said Kevin Nolan. “We're all in sync at the moment and we're all working hard.

"I have another conversation with Kelvin (Thomas) this afternoon (Tuesday) to keep him up to date in terms of where we're at and what we're looking at and who we're pushing for. There's still plenty going on behind the scenes and I'm sure everyone will know as soon as we can get deals over the line.”

Nolan is keen to strengthen in several positions but particularly attack, although he was unhappy with the manner of all three goals his side conceded against Wigan on Saturday.

“I didn’t think there was a lot in the game but they had a 10 minute spell and scored two goals and it was pretty poor from our point of view,” Nolan admitted. “We have worked on that in training this week because we need to eradicate those mistakes.

"There was nothing in the game up until then but suddenly we’re 2-0 behind at half-time and we spoke about a positive reaction in the second half and trying to score the next goal, and then 15 seconds later we concede another poor goal.

"But we gave out 10 debuts and that shows the amount of change this summer. We are where we are, I’m happy with the recruitment so far, and we’re very positive about what we can achieve this season.”