Kevin Nolan won't accept any drop off from Cobblers in the final two games of the season
Kevin Nolan will not tolerate any drop off from his players over the final two weeks of the season – starting against Crawley Town this weekend – despite knowing Cobblers are now safe from relegation.
After victory over Shrewsbury on Easter Monday, Town will be playing League One football next season regardless of what happens against Crawley tomorrow and then Wigan next weekend, but Nolan wants to win both games and finish as high as possible.
"We had a couple of days off after Monday but we still have two games left and I want to get six points out of them and finish on 56 points,” he said. “We’ve got to go to Crawley and do our job and I’ve told the lads we need to be ruthless. We’re not done yet.
"It'll be a tough game because they’ll be up for it. Crawley are still in there, they’re fighting for their lives and trying to stay in League One, but we'll go there and I want to win the game. That's what I've said to the lads. I'm looking up and I want to pull another team closer to us.
"We're on 50 points. The maximum we can get is 56 and we have a great chance of getting there, but we have to match Crawley’s work ethic and enthusiasm because they’ll be fully up for it.”
These last couple of fixtures are also an opportunity for Cobblers to show their fans what they can do ahead of next season.
Nolan added: "I'm pleased we can now look forward to a good end to the season and I'm sure the chairman's pleased and I'm hoping now we've shown the fans enough to get a lot of them coming back next season.
"We want to get Sixfields sold out much more than we have this year and we want them to keep coming back and hopefully we can give them lots to chant about and cheer about.
"We have out-performed a lot of teams in this league since I came in on Boxing Day and that's credit to the lads but now the plan is to finish the season as strongly as we can.”