Dobson 'absolutely buzzing' after netting first Cobblers goals on 'special night' for Town's youngsters

Barely 1,000 supporters were in attendance on Tuesday evening as Dobson’s well-taken second half brace, his first senior goals, helped Cobblers remain on course to qualify for the knockout stages with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Leicester City Under-21s.

By any measure, this was not an exciting spectacle, but the 17-year-old will never forget where he was when he realised his dream of scoring as a professional footballer.

"I'm absolutely buzzing,” beamed Dobson afterwards. “I was just grateful to be given the opportunity to start. I thought I started the game a little bit slowly but I got into it and I'm really grateful and really happy to score two goals and to have this opportunity.

"I actually said to Ads (Adam Moreton) the kit man before the game that I was going to score a brace so I’ll take that! My family couldn’t make it but I had a few friends here and it was a special night.”

Dobson's double added to TJ Eyoma’s first half header against Leicester and now only defeat to Burton in next week’s final group stage game, combined with a six-goal swing, would deny Cobblers a place in the knockout stages.

Of course, though, the league remains the priority and Town’s ongoing injury crisis, particularly in forward positions, may present Dobson with more opportunities. He certainly did himself no harm on Tuesday.

"We'll see about that but I don't want to say too much on that right now,” he added. “But I scored a few goals on loan at Corby so I feel in good form at the moment and I'm getting into the swing of things.

"I started a little bit slowly in pre-season and I didn't get as many minutes as I would have liked but I’ve got my season going now and I’m just happy to be scoring goals and I want to keep it up.”

It helped Dobson to have Tyler Roberts alongside him against Leicester, a player who has made more than 50 Premier League appearances and who created both of his two goals.

The teenager continued: "It was really nice to play next to someone as experience as Tyler. He's got so much quality and he was speaking to me a lot during the game and he helped me through it.

"He was just telling me where to be and when to run off him and there were just casual tactical instructions that we were given before the game.

"He was reassuring me throughout and made sure I was on top of things throughout and that helped me. We needed to bounce back after the weekend and I thought we did that.”