Jon Brady 'immensely proud' after 'incredible' point for Cobblers against Birmingham City
Jon Brady was ‘immensely proud’ of his players after they claimed an ‘incredible’ 1-1 draw at big-spending Birmingham City on Saturday.
The League One title favourites dominated possession at St Andrews but created very little in the first half, with the best chance instead falling to Town and Jon Guthrie, who was denied by goalkeeper Ryan Allsop.
Birmingham upped the ante in the second period and their quality eventually told thanks to £15million man Jay Stansfield, but even then Cobblers continued to fight tooth and nail and they were rewarded in spectacular fashion.
As the clock ticked past 96 minutes, the ball dropped to Mitch Pinnock on the left side of the penalty box and he kept his composure to fire low and hard across the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner, leading to glorious scenes among 2,200 Cobblers supporters in the away end.
"I just said to the boys afterwards, even if we had lost the game 1-0, I would have come into the changing room and been immensely proud of their efforts,” said Brady.
"With five minutes to go I just asked Neo (Dobson) and Waggy (Martyn Waghorn) not to drop back and to stay up the pitch and to gamble and try and pin their back-line and that’s what they did. It was so pleasing when Mitch finishes it off.
"They obviously dominate possession but we came here to disrupt them and to spoil their rhythm and we did that brilliantly. I thought we looked really strong before the injuries happen and I can’t remember them having any clear chances in the first half.
"We had Jon Guthrie’s chance, the goalkeeper makes an incredible save, and then Cam McGeehan’s header is cleared off the line and with 15 minutes to go Will Hondermarck pops up in the box so we had three big chances.
“It was an incredible effort from the group and it feels like a win.”