Cobblers' attack just needs 'fine-tuning' after recent blunt performances

Cobblers’ attacking play just needs a little bit of ‘fine-tuning’ to get back among the goals after shooting a couple of blanks in recent matches, according to manager Jon Brady.

Town remain the highest scorers in League Two despite failing to find the net in both of their last two games against Walsall and Salford. They struggled to create clear-cut chances in either game, especially once the opposition put men behind the ball and defended their lead.

"We have come up against packed defences a few times already this season and we have been able to unlock them,” said Brady. "It's just fine-tuning and it's working on it and it's being clinical in the moment and taking your chances when they come.

"It's all of that combined and we are confident it will happen because we have already proven we can do it. We had some good chances against Salford but the goalkeeper made a couple of good saves.

"We weren't able to make some of our entries into the final third count with better play or, more importantly, better decision-making. We need to be better and more clinical in the final third, we know that.

"It gets highlighted a bit more because we haven't scored in our last two games but we are the top scorers in the league so we know we can do it. We need to make better decisions and be more clinical in the final third.”

What is not helping Northampton at the moment is their failure to score the first goal. Having done it so well last season, and at the start of this, they have conceded first in each of the last four games.

"We are up there with the most points won from losing positions in the whole EFL but we don’t want to be doing that every week,” Brady admitted.

"We were very consistent last year and I think we led for the most minutes in the league – by a long way. You always want to score the first goal because it does give you an advantage.

"We have to aim to start well, score the first goal and keep more clean sheets. Ultimately we always work to win the game and that doesn’t change this weekend.”