Kevin Nolan hopeful of adding to Cobblers squad before opening League One game

Town rounded out their pre-season campaign by beating a Birmingham City XI 3-0 at Sixfields on Saturday, but as promising and as dominant a performance as it was, Nolan’s shortage of attacking options was evidenced by the fact there were no natural senior strikers in the squad.

Twelve new faces have arrived at Sixfields this summer but almost all of those are midfielders or defenders, so the week leading up to Northampton’s League One curtain-raiser at the DW Stadium will be dominated by their ongoing search for forwards.

Nolan said: "There’s always lots of rumours at this time of year but we’re speaking to two or three players at the moment and hopefully we can get them over the line. It can take a bit of time on some occasions, whether that’s down to contracts or putting bids in for players or whatever it is.

"Of course we’re looking at strikers but unfortunately they are probably the most difficult deals to do. There’s a domino effect and we’re waiting for the Premier League but they’re all in America or Asia so they aren’t releasing their young players until later than normal and that’s made it difficult.

"We just have to be patient and make sure it’s right because we only want players who are 110 per cent all in and who will make us better. It’s really important we get the right players in to join what’s already a very sound squad.”