Hogg sets out how he wants Cobblers to approach 'different' Gills threat

After losing 1-0 to Crewe last time out, in a game where both teams favoured a more possession-based approach, Town will face a direct challenge at Priestfield. Gillingham ranked in the bottom five for average possession and average accurate passes per game last season, and fifth for long balls per game.

But Hogg is familiar with Ainsworth’s work from past encounters and knows full well the type of test that awaits his side on Saturday afternoon (ko 3pm). ​

"Gareth is someone I have known for years and I’ve come up against his teams many times,” said Hogg. "He’s done a great job wherever he’s gone and everyone knows his character and I love him as a guy. t’ll be a tough game and a physical game but that’s the case every week in League Two.”

Cobblers are looking to play a more expressive, expansive style of football this season – and that won’t change regardless of who they come up against.

Hogg added: "Gillingham will want a good performance at home but my message stays the same – I want us to go there and be us. The opposition are the opposition, and they are obviously a big factor in any game, but for me, it’s about how we can assert our dominance and implement our style of play.

"I want to give our boys the belief that they can go anywhere in this league and get a result. You always have to earn the right to allow yourself to get the ball and attack teams, but if we stick to our principles, we will give ourselves a fair chance.

"We’ll have to fight and we’ll have to scrap and we’ll have to deal with some direct stuff but I’m really looking forward to it and I think it’s a good game for us to go into.”

It will almost certainly look different to the game at Crewe, where Cobblers played some nice stuff but lacked a killer instinct.

"That’s the beauty of football,” continued Hogg. “There’s no right or wrong way and no two teams are the same. The challenge for our boys is to go and problem solve against a different type of opposition and how do we make sure our performances stay at a really good level.

"I’ve been happy with a lot of elements of our performances in the first two games but now we need to go and replicate the good bits and take it one step further.”

Reflecting further on the defeat to Crewe, Hogg said: "We had a good meeting with the players on Monday and we went through some of the good play and some of the good bits and we also looked at the areas where we can hurt teams more.

"There was so much good in the performance and when you reflect on the cold light of day, it was a 16-minute spell that hurt us. We made a bit of an error, that builds the momentum for them and it leads to the contentious goal.

"We kind of lost our way after that but then we made some subs and we got the momentum back for the last 20. The lads are good with their reflections and we've had a good chat about it, we've analysed it and we'll move on and we've had a couple of good training days and done some good work.

“It's about moving forward and keep doing the good stuff, making it even better, and improve."