Goalkeeper Roberts taking the positives from Cobblers' Sutton shutout

The 0-0 draw at Gander Green Lane was the first time Town had stopped the opposition scoring for six Sky Bet League Two matches, a run stretching back to the 1-0 win over Leyton Orient on November 27.

Town are now four matches without a win and have yet to claim three points in 2022, but Roberts was encouraged by the performance against Sutton, which came off the back of an equally useful 1-1 draw with leaders Forest Green Rovers seven days earlier.

And in particular, he feels the fact the Cobblers managed to stop free-scoring Sutton from hitting the target is a major plus.

United's previous seven games had seen them rattle in 15 goals, but they drew a blank against Town, with the defence standing firm and Roberts doing his bit by pulling off a couple of spectacular stops.

And asked about the clean sheet, Roberts said: "It is important as a team, because that is what we pride ourselves on, being defensively solid.

"So I think the lads in front of me only limited them to a couple of chances in the game, so praise to those in front of me.

"I think we are now back to where we were, being solid defensively and not giving too many chances away.

"We now have to build on that, and can we now progress further forward, and can we build from the back.

"I thought we played more with the ball on Saturday, and I think that was probably our best performance with the ball for the past couple of weeks in the first half.

"So there are a lot of positives to come from Saturday."

And Roberts believes it is something the Cobblers can build on going into Saturday's Sixfields showdown with big-spending Salford City.

"At the start of the season we prided ourselves on keeping clean sheets, and having another one at the weekend will spur us on defensively," said the former Walsall man.

"I think throughout the season we have for the most part looked solid.

"We make mistakes as every team does, and that is the difference between winning and losing sometimes, but I think we have been solid as a defensive unit.

"Now we have to take it and build on it, and build that momentum again."

And looking back on the Sutton stalemate, the 27-year-old added: "I think we will take the point.

"I think they had won something like seven on the spin at home or something, so we will take the draw.

"Obviously we are disappointed we couldn't get all three in the end, with being a man up and also having the amount of goalmouth scrambles we had towards the end of the game.

"It is one of those where it is a point gained and we have to just build on it going into the weekend now."