Jon Brady on the tactical tweak that was key for Cobblers during win over Leyton Orient

A tactical tweak midway through the first-half was key in Cobblers wrestling back some control of Monday’s 1-0 victory over league leaders Leyton Orient.

Town lined up 4-3-3 as they have done in most games recently, albeit with Mitch Pinnock in midfield instead of Ben Fox, but Orient made the better, more purposeful start at Sixfields without creating a clear-cut chance.

However, manager Jon Brady used Tyler Magloire’s injury as an opportunity to mix things up. He issues some instructions to Marc Leonard and Pinnock on the touchline and promptly moved to a back three with Aaron McGowan slotting in as a makeshift centre-half.

From then on, Cobblers, whilst not overly dominant, largely controlled the game and scored the decisive goal through Fox’s accurate low finish early in the second-half. The midfielder had started seven successive games before being dropped to the bench.

Brady said: "Neither team was great in possession early on and the ball kept turning over but I felt we needed to get two up top against their back three and we then got more in the ascendency.

"I had a chat with Ben before the game. I do that with players when I don't start someone who has been playing because I need to give them a why – 'why are you not in the team today?'

"I explained that I wanted to go a bit more attacking so we played Mitch in there but it didn't quite work and we were a bit off so I made it personnel and locked onto the opposition as quickly as we could and once we did that, I felt we got a foothold in the game.

"I wanted Foxy to play forward more and he's been getting in there but he hasn't been finishing a couple of chances recently. I told him that the game changes when you score those goals and he's gone and got us the winner and I'm so pleased for him because he's a cracking lad and he's done brilliantly for us.

"He might have felt hard done by but maybe that was the motivation for him to go and put the ball in the back of the net."

Cobblers defended their narrow lead well in the final few minutes, helped by the support of a big crowd at Sixfields. Brady revved up the home fans himself when he roared ‘don’t go quiet!’ in stoppage-time as Orient pressed for a late equaliser.

"I've just got huge stick off my family for that,” he said. “They are calling me Delia Smith! I think they felt I had embarrassed myself and they were wondering what I was doing but I just needed our fans to give the players some energy to drive them on.

"We have talked about everyone being together and I didn't want us to sink back. Last season, we might have sunk back but I wanted us to stay aggressive and we did.”