Janoi Donacien, man of the match in Northampton’s first game of the new League Two season, says he was ‘all in’ on Cobblers after speaking to manager Chris Hogg.

The 32-year-old, who worked with Hogg at Ipswich, penned a one-year deal last month and has impressed in his opening two matches for his new club, particularly in the 0-0 daw against Swindon Town.

"The local connection was a factor but the manager was the big one for me,” explained the defender. “He rang me straightaway and said he wanted me to be a part of what's going on down here. That was it for me. As soon as I spoke to him, I was all in.

"It's obviously early days and there's a lot of new players but I feel we have a good group and we just need to keep working hard and that will make things easier. I'm sure things will start to click.”

Being close to family was another important consideration for the Saint Lucian international.

He added: "I had my parents, my son and my cousin at the game on Saturday and it's beautiful. I'm local to here so it's lovely to have my parents to come and watch. They haven't seen me play in a long time and it makes it extra special to have them at the game. I look forward to them coming a lot more.

“Family is the most important thing in life so to know they're with you and supporting you and they have your back, it's really special and just pushes you on that little bit more.”

Reflecting on the game itself, Donacien continued: "I thought it was a very decent afternoon for us. It's our first game in front of our fans and we wanted to show them what we can do.

"We competed well and we had a good go and now we will keep working and keep building and keep looking to get better. We'e still pushing. This was a good start but we need to keep at it because we're not at our peak yet.

"We work extremely hard in training on how the gaffer wants to play and how we want to play and we wrote down the type of team we want to be this season.

“It’s a point in the right direction and I thought the fans gave us great support. We want to excite them and entertain and be more on the front foot and we want to them to come on this journey with us. Hopefully there's a lot more to come."