Hogg will be pragmatic when needed in pursuit of his Cobblers vision

From day of his appointment, Hogg has spoken about his desire to create a forward-thinking, possession-based team. There have been signs of that in the early stages of the season, but not so at York last Saturday where Cobblers were happy for the hosts to dominate possession.

Hogg said: "I want more of the ball and I want to control possession a bit more but it goes back to the journey we’re on as a team and you have to be realistic in terms of the situations you find yourself in.

"Saturday’s performance was real progress on the discipline side of it and the out-of-possession stuff, and working together as a team was important. We were organised without the ball and we did a terrific job, especially in the first half.”

York are somewhat of a special case given how much they like to dominate the ball in every game they play. However, while Hogg will continue to pursue his ultimate vision, he has no problem in compromising along the way.

"You have to adjust in any given moment,” he added. “There’s a long-term plan with the club and the type of team we want to be. But, ultimately, it all has to be built on being hard to beat and I think that matches Northampton as a town – hard work and willing to put the graft in.

"That resonates with a lot of people around the town and it’ll always be part of our vision for the club. I don’t want to have 20 per cent of the ball in every game but you have to live in those moments at times and it’s part of the journey.

"I do want the ball, I do want us to attack and I want us to be exciting and that message from me hasn’t changed, but circumstances sometimes dictate things and you have to think about how you can build confidence and belief in people.”

Regardless of what was a good point at York, Cobblers need to start winning games if they are to manoeuvre themselves away from the bottom of the table. They go to Grimsby Town this weekend and then have back-to-back matches at Sixfields.

Hogg continued: "I think most people felt it was a solid start after five games, we had been relatively OK, but then you lose back-to-back games and there’s a lot of emotion going around.

"You have to stay really level and continue to build towards what we want to be – but to build that confidence, you sometimes have to batten down the hatches and make sure you’re competing in games.

"I think we’ve looked more dangerous in the last couple of games, especially in the first half against Rotherham and York, so I feel we’re on the right path and we’re playing with more intent and energy.

“We want to go to Grimsby and attack the game and give the fans something to get behind. There will be a strategy behind what we want to do and that’s built on being hard to beat.

“Grimsby like to be quicker in terms of moving the ball forward compared to what we faced last week, so we’ll have to be well organised and resolute, but we’ve trained well this week and I’m relishing the challenge. We need to start winning games quickly.”