Leeds striker earns praise but Jones gives Brady a selection dilemma

Cobblers boss Jon Brady could have some tricky selection decisions to make in the coming weeks after praising both Ryan Edmondson and Alex Jones.

Edmondson, on loan from Leeds United, did not start any of Brady's first three games in charge but has led the line in each of the last five matches.

He earned plenty of plaudits for his performances during Town's wins over both Plymouth and Portsmouth, claiming his first goal for the club against the latter.

"Ryan's done really well," said Brady. "I think he's linking well with Ryan Watson and our wide men.

"We've got a lot of pace and power up there and now Ryan has managed to nick that goal off Sammy and rightly so he followed it in, which was fantastic.

"We believe Ryan's output and workload up top is really setting the standard for the rest of the team and it's allowing us to get up the pitch and defend from the front.

"Although we're not getting the goal return from him that we'd like more consistently, what we are getting is a high-energy work-rate and he scares the life out of defenders with his pace in behind."

However, Edmondson has new competition up front in the form of Jones, who signed on a free transfer last week and looked bright off the bench at Charlton on Tuesday, scoring a stoppage-time consolation.

Whilst the 26-year-old may have to be patient for more opportunities given his lack of match action, Brady admitted he is more 'prominent' in his thoughts.

"It's a difficult one because of the way he came on the way he did on Tuesday," Brady explained. "He was only on for about seven minutes but looked really lively, got into a couple of goalscoring positions and scored a good goal.

"But the trade-off you've got is that he hasn't played for such a long time - over six months. He's looked OK in training but Tuesday was the best we have seen in him and he really came alive.

"We work the players who are just off the group harder to try and keep them up the match fitness level and it looks like we're doing a good job of that and now he's more prominent in our thoughts moving forward."