Colchester boss Cowley 'wanted to sign' a couple of Cobblers players in the summer
Colchester United boss Danny Cowley has revealed his interest in signing ‘a couple of players’ who ultimately joined Northampton during the summer transfer window.
Colchester’s summer recruitment included two ex-Cobblers in Beryly Lubala and Jay Williams, but they also had their eyes on one or two players who ended up heading to Sixfields.
The two teams meet at Sixfields on Saturday (12.30pm kick-off) with both in need of a win. While Town are 23rd in League Two, Colchester haven’t won since August.
Cowley said: “We’re up against a good Northampton team. Forget their league position, they are a well-coached team with the ball and without the ball, and they have some really good players.
“There were a couple that we wanted to sign in the summer that ended up being recruited by them. We couldn’t quite make it happen. They have a really nice balance of some senior players and younger players who are on an upward curve.
“We’re 10, 11 games in and if you look at the statistics, they should be a lot higher. I watched the game against Tranmere and they should have won that game. They’ve got a better squad than their league position suggests and we know we’re in for a tough game. It’s a great challenge but we want to take that feeling from Tuesday night into the weekend.”
Cowley, whose team drew 1-1 at Chesterfield on Tuesday after a late equaliser from Ben Perry, identified the Spireites as one of the two best teams in the league so far.
“It’s a really tight division,” he added. “I’ve probably watched about 50 games so far this season and from what I’ve seen, Chesterfield and Salford look the top teams. They are probably above the level but anyone can beat anyone on any given day.
“We are still trying to find consistency and we’ve just got to fight and leave it all out there.”