Jon Brady's simple half-time message to Cobblers players during hard-fought win over Crawley

Manager Jon Brady kept things simple with his players at half-time of Saturday’s hard-earned victory over Crawley Town despite a dominant but frustrating first 45 minutes against the relegation-battlers.

Cobblers took 10 shots to Crawley’s two in a one-sided first-half at Sixfields and created a hatful of good chances, but Louis Appéré, twice, Mitch Pinnock, Josh Eppiah and Sam Hoskins all failed to take advantage as the teams went in with nothing to separate them.

Instead of showing his frustration at the break though, Brady simply told his players to keep going and eventually they would be rewarded. Although a scratchy second-half was more even, Town overcame Aaron McGowan’s controversial red card to claim all three points thanks to Jack Sowerby’s wonder goal.

"We have a big screen in there to run through some technical stuff but all I did at half-time was play all the chances we created back the players,” explained Brady. “I just said to them – ‘how are you getting in? You tell me’. It was that type of learning.

"The players fed back to us but in the end the way we opened it up was through a 25-yard volley instead of all the nice, intricate play that we produced in the first-half.

"Modern day people talk about xG and stuff like that and I think in the first-half our xG must have been over two, which is very high. You're talking about some real good chances that we missed, but we still had the belief to keep going and that's really important.”

On Sowerby’s sensational goal and the subsequent celebrations, Brady added: "It was brilliant technique and a great moment for Jack and a great moment for all of the team and a lovely celebration. I just saw it back and all the subs came over and everyone was together.

"We were aiming for nine points out of nine this week but we have seven which is still a good return. We know it wasn't our best performance on Tuesday but what a way to bounce back.”

Brady has not always been able to fully celebrate some wins this season due to having fresh injuries to worry about, but despite Ali Koiki being subbed off at half-time, that was not the case on Saturday.

"I've not had chance to check on Ali but to be honest I am going to let myself enjoy this win and I'll deal with that on Monday,” said Brady.