Hogg: I want to enjoy watching my team play football
Chris Hogg says he wants to create a team that can be ‘enjoyed’ by all, including himself, after Cobblers ended pre-season with an enterprising 4-2 win over Solihull Moors.
Bringing the enjoyment back to supporters is one of Hogg’s biggest challenges. The second half of the 2024/25 campaign, while ultimately successful in terms of avoiding relegation under Kevin Nolan, became a grind, before last season’s alarming capitulation.
Back in League Two, Hogg has been tasked with rebuilding the club and the squad after taking charge earlier this summer, and in doing so he wants to create a front-footed, free-flowing side that attacks and entertains. It might take a while for everything to click but there were signs of potential against Solihull as the likes of Connor Evans, Matty Warhurst, Logan Briggs and Kamarai Swyer combined to good effect.
To be successful, Cobblers will also need to improve defensively and that is another area of focus for Hogg, particularly given the manner of Solihull’s goals on Saturday, both of which were from free-kicks.
"The set-piece goals were disappointing and we will need to look at that,” admitted Hogg. “But I really enjoyed some of our football and I want to enjoy what I'm watching. The fourth goal was a beautiful bit of play and I love seeing players being creative and expressing themselves in the final third and that's what we want to create.
"There's loads of good there. We did some bits and bobs on certain things in training in the last few days and it was nice to see the boys go out there and show the confidence to try things and I thought we got into some really good areas.
"The quality at the end of it is where we sometimes let ourselves down but you can never grumble after scoring four goals. It's a good thing in any game, pre-season or not, and the challenge for us know is to knit it all together.
"We need to make sure we are good both win and without the ball. Rather than 15 or 20 minute spells, we have to be good in and out of possession for 90 minutes. We have shown in pre-season we are capable of doing everything in different moments, and we’ve been hard to beat at times, but it's tying it all together consistently.
“There’s still plenty of work to do but if you look at where we were at the start of pre-season and compare it to where we are now, in terms of our progress on the ball, we’re in a different place.”