Cobblers boss Page says Moloney and Taylor were rested as a precaution

Both Moloney, who had knee surgery at the end of last season, and Taylor watched on from the sidelines at the A1 Gasforce Stadium after they were left out of the two Northampton teams which took to the field in each half.

But Page allayed any concerns over the duo as the Cobblers boss confirmed they will return to training this week.

He said: “Brendan has this long-term injury that he got last season and he hasn’t done the training that we probably would have wanted him to do through the close season.

“That’s understandable so we have to be patient with him and build him up to match fitness and we always knew he’d pick up little niggles along the way.

“He’s just a little bit sore from the 45 minutes on Saturday and we don’t want to make it worse because it’s a longer term injury and we want to manage that to get him up to full fitness, which we will do.

“Jason picked up a knock on Saturday. He took a hefty whack and he’s just feeling it a little bit so again it’s keeping him out to be safe but both will be back in training on Thursday.”

Left-back Hanley, meanwhile, started the second-half against Nuneaton but pulled up with what appeared to be a thigh issue moments after sprinting down the left touchline within minutes of entering the action.

“We’ll have to look at him,” added Page. “On his first sprint he felt his thigh and we didn’t think twice before taking him off.

“I asked him if there was a problem and we gave him a couple of minutes but we took him off to make sure we didn’t make it any worse.”