Emotional Brady praises togetherness of Cobblers ‘family’

The club were shocked and saddened by the death of the wife of goalkeeping coach James Alger on Monday, and they paid tribute by holding up a shirt dedicated to Alger and his family after Sam Hoskins’ first goal against Crawley.

"It’s obviously been a very difficult few days,” said Brady. “Saturday in the heat was draining and then to get the news we did on Monday about one of our family members was hard to take.

"We really feel for James but we also respect him and his family and their privacy.

"The one thing we do as a staff and as a football club is stick together. We are all a family here.

"Our chairman has talked about that and he’s been incredible, and our chief executive, our chaplain Haydon (Spenceley) and everyone behind the scenes and the players have all pulled together.”

Hoskins was on target again later in the first-half at Crawley to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 half-time lead before Kieron Bowie grabbed all three points with a dramatic stoppage-time winner.

"That wasn’t pretty in the second-half,” admitted Brady, whose side dominated the first-half before struggling in the second. “I thought Crawley deserved a bit more from the game.

"It was probably harsh on them and I’ll hold my hands up to that, but we showed spirit and endeavour and found a way to win.

"(Lee) Burgey made some good saves, there was some last-ditch defending and we have injuries galore and yet we find a way to win.”