Cobblers boss Wilder: We want the players to keep their heads down and keep going

Town have already broken a 46-year-old club record by winning 10 league games in succession, and there are landmarks in their sights as they prepare for Saturday’s Sky Bet League Two at Hartlepool United.

But when Wilder was asked if he has his eye on breaking more records, his answer was a simple: “No.”

And he added: “You can’t start looking ahead. We have not got out of the division yet, although we are close and we understand that, we don’t live in a bunker.

“You do look at stats and people will tell us what would have got us up last year, so we know we are getting close to the finishing line, but we just want the players to be relentless.

“We want them to keep their heads down, to keep going, and have that feeling on a Saturday afternoon at 5pm that they have got the job done again.”

The Cobblers have won 15 of their past 16 league games to go 12 points clear at the top of the table, and haven’t dropped a point since they were beaten 2-1 at home by Portsmouth back on December 19.

They haven’t dropped a point on the road since October when they drew 2-2 at Newport County, and on Saturday are chasing a nonth straight away win, which would be another record.

It is a remarkable run of results that surely must come to an end at some time, and Wilder insists when it is finally brought to a halt, he wants to simply go again and put together another run of victories.

“When a defeat does come, and who knows when it will come because there are a lot of factors that are sometimes out of your hands on that,” he said.

“When it does come, and it will come, we will be disappointed, and we will be looking off the back of that to go to the next game and go again.

“That is the mentality of the group, and they have to have that drive inside them, day to day, game to game, to achieve.”

It is a drive that seems to be present throughout the entire squad, with even those players that have been on the fringes in recent weeks stepping straight into the groove when called upon, players such as Nicky Adams and Jason Taylor, who have both made rare starts in recent matches.

And Wilder says it is the prize of silverware at the end of the campaign that is the inspiration.

“We are looking strong, there is getting away from that,” said Wilder. “We have a group of players that physically look really good, have a lot of ability, and their mentality is they want to finish the season on a high.

“That has been the mentality of the group right the way through from pre-season.

“The players don’t have to give their life up, but they do have to give part of their life up to be successful, because it is only a short career, and there are only so many seasons where you can win things.

“A lot of these players at this level don’t win things year in, year out, so they have an opportunity of doing something and they look a determined group.

“The players don’t look as if they want to slip up, they are not showing any signs of slipping up. They enjoy winning, they enjoy being successful, and if we are going to win we can’t afford to have any days off.

“I don’t want the group to think ‘oh, we’ve done well over the past two months, we can have a night off’, we can’t.

“Because if you do have that mentality, or you do think like that, there is always a team around the corner ready to come and take the three points away from you.

“We have worked hard in everything we have done to get into this position, we have worked hard on recruitment, we have worked hard on the training ground, the players have worked hard on the pitch in games, but we still have 14 games to play.

“There is a big chunk of points to play for, and I look at the players now and they have the same desire that they had on day one at Bristol Rovers, and it is important they keep that attitude.”