Cobblers to make late call on Guthrie and Brough but Koiki suffers significant setback

Cobblers will make a late decision on whether or not Jon Guthrie and Patrick Brough are ready to be involved against Portsmouth on Saturday, but one man who definitely won’t feature is left-back Ali Koiki.

Guthrie played half an hour in the EFL Trophy against MK Dons last week but he was not in the squad for Northampton’s league wins against Cambridge and Blackpool as the medical staff carefully manage his return from a hamstring injury.

Brough was scheduled to start at Blackpool on Tuesday but he pulled out an hour before kick-off with an unknown problem as Akin Odimayo slotted in at left-back and performed superbly in Town’s excellent 2-1 victory.

It’s bad news for another left-back, however, as injury-hit Koiki faces more time out after he limped off during the defeat at Stadium MK last Tuesday.

"It’s still the same situation with Jon,” said Brady. “He’s doing well but we’re taking our time with him and we are not going to force anything. We’re playing the long game and it’ll be a decision that we will make on Friday.

"Broughy is also being monitored after not being involved on Tuesday and that’ll be a late decision as well, but unfortunately Ali will be out for a while.

"As people saw at the time, he came off with an injury against MK Dons. It’s unfortunate but we wish him all our best.”

Reflecting further on Tuesday’s fine performance and win, Brady added: “I was very pleased with how we played and how the players implemented the game plan. It’s always a great feeling when the plan works but it's up to the boys to take on instructions and go out there and do it and they worked so hard.

"There are so many variables in football and Blackpool posed us problems so the boys have to come up with solutions in the moment and it was real high level stuff.”