Goalkeeper Burge in no doubt the Cobblers are on the right track

Goalkeeper Lee Burge says there is a real feelgood factor around the Cobblers as they prepare for Tuesday night’s Sky Bet League One trip to nearby Charlton Athletic.

Town were left frustrated by the weather at the weekend, as their scheduled trip to Oxford United was postponed due to a frozen pitch.

Their inactivity saw them drop to 10th in league one, but the Cobblers are still in the midst of a great run of form that has seen them climb away from the edge of the relegation zone to the top half of the table.

In their past 11 league encounters, they have picked up seven wins and two draws, and it has been two months of real progress.

It is an upward curve that Burge is convinced can be maintained.

"I think we are obviously going in the right direction in everything we want to do," said the goalkeeper, who made his first-team return after injury in the recent 1-1 Sixfields draw with Wigan Athletic.

"It is good because we have got a good group of lads that we have had together now for a few years, and I think we will only get better, because we are still quite a young group as well.

"It is really pleasing to be battling towards the top end of league one."

And he added: "I always bring it back to when I first came to the club and I had a meeting with James Alger (goalkeeping coach) and the gaffer (Jon Brady), and you could tell that they had a plan.

"They have stuck to that plan, you can see the club is going in the right direction, and I am proud to be a part of that."

Burge has played a big role in the Cobblers' rise from league two to the higher reaches of league one in the past 18 months, but he admits this season has so far proved to be a difficult one.

The former Coventry City and Sunderland man made his 50th appearance for the club in the Wigan encounter, but it was only his 11th start of the campaign, having been struck down twice by injury since August.

"It has been a frustrating one," he admitted.

"I haven't really been able to get going, but now hopefully I am back and I am going to stay fit, and I will certainly be working hard to play until the end of the season.

"I have had a couple of injuries, but hopefully they will stay away now.

"In the first game of the season I felt really sharp and felt really good, and then I got injured, so it has been frustrating.

"But hopefully now all that is behind me and I can carry on and concentrate now, and help make sure we have a great end to the season.”