Kioso catches the eye on debut as Curle backs Leeds loanee Edmondson to recover from miss

After being on the wrong end of heavy defeats to Oxford United and Lincoln City only last month, it was hard to make a case for the Cobblers maintaining their League One status this season.

Keith Curle's side were beaten 4-0 twice in the space of four days and as a result dropped back into the relegation zone, but fast forward five weeks and there are reasons to be far more upbeat about their survival chances.

Town's only defeat in four games since was a narrow one at the home of the new league leaders, taking five points and keeping two clean sheets in their other three fixtures to edge back out of the bottom four.

With the aid of four January signings, they look a stronger and more balanced side. Whilst Tuesday's goalless draw at Fleetwood was far from a thriller, it was encouraging to see Cobblers create the best two chances and finish the game firmly on top.

So often pinned back and hanging on in the latter stages of games this season, at the Highbury Stadium Town came on strong and could easily have taken all three points had Ryan Edmondson or Danny Rose converted either or both of their best two opportunities.

Ryan Watson also made a big impact off the bench and twice went close himself, while fellow sub Ricky Korboa saw a shot blocked following more good work by debutant Peter Kioso.

Edmondson will be especially frustrated not to open his account after being slipped through by Sam Hoskins late in the first-half, but Fleetwood's Alex Cairns deserves credit for a good save and Curle was reluctant to blame the Leeds United youngster.

"We had the best chance of the game with Ryan in the first-half," he said. "I loved the movement and the build-up play leading up to that.

"I never criticise strikers that get opportunities because a lot of work goes in to get that opportunity and his movement was very good. He made a decision because the goalkeeper was coming out and committing himself.

'You have to give credit to him for standing up but it was nice to get a centre-forward behind them."

Bryn Morris had another good game after an excellent debut at Lincoln on Saturday, but it was another January signing that most caught the eye.

Kioso was straight in at wing-back after signing on Monday and had a busy game at both ends of the pitch. His first touch as a Cobbler was to make a crucial defensive header but he also offered something in attack, creating two good chances with driving runs and accurate crosses from the right.

"He showed his value," added Curle. "I spoke about his defensive duties at the back post when he came in on Monday and you saw that within the first two minutes when he made an excellent clearing header.

"He showed his athleticism, his bravery and his determination and he made sure the striker didn't make first contact. He got better and better from then on.

"There are still things he needs to work on in terms of going to close the ball down because he's so eager to go, sometimes he goes when he isn't going to get there.

"But the more the game went on, the more we were able to get him into forward positions. He wants to get to the byline and there was some good combination play with him and Ryan to set up Ricky Korboa.

"That was excellent and something we worked on. There's not a lot of work we can do because we had four inches of snow on the pitch but the ideas were planted in there."