Jon Brady reflects on Cobblers' start to the season and reveals the two League One teams that have stood out to him so far

Cobblers boss Jon Brady has been satisfied with his side’s general level of performance over the first 11 games of the season – but he admits they now need to ‘kick on’ and pick up points on a more consistent basis to consolidate in League One.

With no game this weekend due to the international break, Northampton have an opportunity to take stock and reflect on their first two months back in League One, and in the main there has been plenty to please Brady and his coaching team. They have been competitive in every single game, winning four, drawing one and losing six – all of which were by just a single goal.

"You always want more points, that's human nature, but if we can improve over the next set of games, that would be important for us and it would give us a bit of breathing space,” reflected Brady. "I think our performances at the moment are as consistent as they have been in our whole time here and that should build a lot of confidence within the group.

"But it's still early in the season and everyone's jostling for position. We are in and around a certain area, a bit above the safety line, and we would like to kick on but we know how tough this league is. We're really pleased with how we've played. We have been strong defensively and we are improving our attacking prowess.

"We've talked about being more aggressive and now it's important to be consistent and keep creating chances, keep getting into the right positions and being clinical with our finishing. It all comes back to being consistent. Consistent in our performances, in our defending and in sustaining attacks and if we do that, I don't see why we can't pick up more wins.”

On his general observations on League One, Brady added: "We haven't played the top two, Portsmouth and Oxford, but I've gone to see both of them play and you can see the quality they have in their squads.

"But, in my opinion, you could probably throw a blanket over the rest of the league in terms of the squads, their abilities and the way they play. It comes down to shutting out the opposition and taking your chances and the teams who do that consistently will climb up the league.

"I hope I'm not doing any team a disservice but I feel there's 20, 22 teams in our league who are very even. It's about doing it on the day so we have to make sure that all 11 players, plus subs, are at it and if we are, we know we can get results against anyone.”