Delight for Brady as Cobblers ease past Colchester

Cobblers boss Jon Brady declared himself 'very pleased' with his side's 3-0 victory over Colchester United on Saturday.

Fraser Horsfall's header broke the deadlock before a wonderful goal by Sam Hoskins gave Town breathing space early in the second-half, their first goal from open play in eight games.

The gloss was then added by Benny Ashley-Seal as Cobblers moved back into the top three. It was a good day elsewhere as Tranmere, Port Vale, Sutton, Newport and Mansfield all dropped points while Exeter did not play.

"We are very pleased overall," said Brady. "We worked hard apart from maybe a 10-minute blip in the second half when I felt we got a little bit sloppy.

"We lost a bit of control and they changed shape and put a bit of pressure on us but we made a couple of substitutions and locked it off.

"It was good to get another goal at the end to make it more comfortable - it was important to get three goals on the board.

"People talk about not scoring from open play but before we scored today, we also had two cleared off the line so we're creating chances.

"We're a very strong set-piece team and today we managed to find a way to score a couple of goals from open play and hopefully that can now continue."