Kevin Nolan: Cobblers 'battling way above' where we should be

Town, who have one of the lowest budgets in the division, were beaten in disappointing fashion against Rotherham last Saturday but it has still been a decent start to the campaign. They occupy 14th place in the early standings with 14 points from 11 games.

"I'm really happy with where we are,” said Nolan. “I am an emotional guy and I'm proud of what these lads are doing. They are battling way above what we're supposed to be doing and where we're supposed to be but I expect that from these boys because of what I've seen and what I think of them.

"Rotherham are another team with a big budget in this league and I don’t expect them to stay down there. No game is easy in this league – there are nine former Premier League teams in the division. That shows you the competition we are up against.

"But I’ve never shied away from it. I know who we are and what we are and I knew what our budget was right from the start. I feel we have created a team and put a team together that can hold their own in this division.

“I was just disappointed because it felt a bit like Wycombe and that's the biggest disappointment for me. We had our fans behind us and I thought they were excellent again but we can't allow teams to come here and do what Rotherham did to us.

"What I didn’t like on Saturday was the other side of the game. I can accept making bad decisions but we lost first and second contacts and that gave Rotherham something to build on. It’s still been a good first quarter of the season but whenever we’ve had a minor setback, there’s not been any panic and we’ve always responded and that’s what I’ll be looking for on Saturday.

"When I'm disappointed, it's because I've seen these lads do better and I know what they can achieve. What we have to look at is how we bounce back from Saturday and we have to be better next week and that starts in training this week.

"I'm looking forward to getting back on the grass with the lads. We can be disappointed after the game and we can be disappointed the next day but it's smiles on faces when we come back in for training and we go again.”