Jon Brady on reason for formation switch, why subs weren't made earlier, Wright-Phillips and more

Cobblers boss Jon Brady has explained his thinking behind the decision to switch to a back three for Saturday’s game against Grimsby Town at Sixfields.

Brady has generally favoured a variation of 4-3-3 this season but opted to go with three centre-backs for the visit of Grimsby. Tyler Magloire returned to the side and Harvey Lintott and Ali Koiki started in the two wing-back positions.

However, the main reason for the change in formation was to get two players up front as Sam Hoskins partnered Louis Appéré, and the two combined well for the opening goal on 18 minutes.

"I wanted to be a little bit more offensive up top with two up there and have a bit more support,” explained Brady. "I felt for various parts of it, and for the goal especially, it worked well and the front two combined really well and I thought that would be really important for us today.

"But I felt we should have stepped on and gone and got the second goal and killed the game right off. We didn't and unfortunately we leave them an opportunity to get back in it at 1-1 and in the 91st minute, they score the second goal.”

Brady did not make a substitution until sending on three players at once – Shaun McWilliams, Will Hondermarck and Josh Eppiah – in the 78th minute, just moments after Grimsby had levelled.

He said: "We were talking about maybe making a sub earlier but we had really good control of the game and we were pushing to go and get the second goal.

"You don't have to make subs just for the sake of it. I felt we looked strong and we were pushing towards their goal and then obviously they go and score.

"The early phase of their first goal, we don't deal with it properly and that was really disappointing. It comes back to game management."

Asked why he didn’t bring on Stoke City loanee D’Margio Wright-Phillips, Brady said there was ‘no particular reason’.

He added: "We haven't become a bad team overnight but there are certain aspects of our game that we have to make sure we really nail down and get right and we'll work really hard to do that before next weekend."

Brady was reluctant to reveal what those ‘aspects’ were but he insisted he was clear in his mind as to how and where Cobblers must improve.