Jon Brady reveals what pleased him most about Cobblers' performance against Leyton Orient

The reaction of his players in the moments after Ben Fox’s red card was arguably the most pleasing element of Cobblers’ performance for manager Jon Brady following Saturday’s goalless draw against Leyton Orient.

Down to 10 men for the final 40 or so minutes, Town could have wilted against high-flying opponents in front of a buoyant home crowd but instead they dug their heels in and defended brilliantly to grind out a valuable and well-deserved away point.

The visitors did not panic following Fox’s controversial red and responded impressively. They kept their shape and discipline and also posed a threat on the counter-attack with Mitch Pinnock going close and Ryan Haynes having a half chance to nick it at the death.

Brady said: "It was really pleasing to see the discipline of the players to keep their shape and the distances from the ball were excellent. You can only provide a little bit of information from the sidelines at the time.

"But for Louis (Appéré) to drop in like he did, and for players like Kieron Bowie, a young lad still learning his trade, to show the game understanding in that moment was excellent and there was a high level of communication from the team to keep shutting out Orient.

"I thought the discipline and the connection between the units was excellent. You never expect a red card to happen but we have done stuff in training a fair while ago where we practice different scenarios so it should help the players because we have worked on it in the past.

"But you have to play in the moment. We talk about distances and we work on stuff like that but if the distances are too deep and the units are too split, then they will slice through you.

"But there wasn’t many opportunities for that and I want to give my players credit for what they did in the moment and I feel that’s really important because they took ownership on the pitch to implement what they did.

"That’s what I was extremely proud of as well as the work-rate and the effort and the attitude to defend and support your team-mate. It was brilliant.”