Cobblers 'hugely stretched' after picking up more injuries before and during Crawley Town victory

Cobblers will assess their injury situation when the dust has settled after being hit with further problems before and during Tuesday night’s helter-skelter 3-2 victory over Crawley Town.

Town were already stretched defensively going into the game with Akin Odimayo, Sam Sherring and Aaron McGowan all sidelined, and Jon Brady’s problems worsened when midfielder Jack Sowerby missed out on a place in the squad that travelled to West Sussex due to a knee issue.

Brady’s side were excellent in the first-half against Crawley and deserved their 2-1 lead at the break, but they were pegged back on the hour-mark and then suffered another blow when a back spasm forced centre-back Tyler Magloire to hobble off.

That meant Cobblers finished the game with a very makeshift back-line that included full-backs Harvey Lintott and Ali Koiki either side of Jon Guthrie in central defence and Sam Hoskins at wing-back.

But whilst they came under mounting pressure, Town somehow found a way to nick all three points as Hoskins teed up substitute Kieron Bowie in stoppage-time for a dramatic winner.

"We have injuries galore and we are stretched all over the place,” said Brady. "We had to find a way with Tyler coming off and everyone had to slot into different positions and had to work for the team.

"We are hugely stretched at the moment and we had a makeshift back-line at the end of the game but in the end we found a way.”