Marc Leonard's stunning strike against Bristol Rovers was off the cuff

Marc Leonard’s sensational strike from a well-worked corner routine against Bristol Rovers on Saturday was not something that had been practiced on the training ground.

Northampton’s lead had just been halved by Rovers when they won a corner on the right. Instead of crossing the ball into the box, Mitch Pinnock rolled it to the edge of the box, Jack Sowerby left it and Leonard unleashed a wonderful first-time strike that flew into the top corner.

"I think it would have been a risk for me and Mitch to do any sort of set-piece routine if the manager was on the sidelines after what happened at Portsmouth,” admitted Leonard, who’s scored three fine goals in his last four games.

"We felt it was on the corner before and we were hesitant to do it but the second time I felt confident enough to hit it and it went in and that's now three Puskás nominees in three weeks!

"I said before that scoring more goals was something that I wanted to add to my game and it's nice that I've finally scored in a game that we've won because it's been a bit bittersweet in the last few weeks. It feels good to score but it feels even better to get the three points."

Assistant boss Ian Sampson confirmed it was off the cuff. "It's a fantastic goal,” he said. “We were talking about it in the dressing room after the game and they were joking that we spent half an hour working on that in training on Friday.

"But they actually did it off their own backs and that's nice to see. We encourage the players to improvise at times and what a finish it was from Marc. He's in a rich vein of form in terms of goals at the moment.

"They saw the situation and the fact that Bristol Rovers didn't leave a man on the edge of the box and they exploited it. It's a superb finish.”

Despite Leonard's impressive performance, fellow midfielder Will Hondermarck was named man of the match by the stadium announcer.

"I thought Will was great,” Leonard added. “I think a lot of his work goes under the radar. To not be in the team for so long and then come back and perform like he has, he's done really well.

"He's good to play beside because he does a lot of work off the ball and he's so powerful when he gets it and he drags the team up the pitch. Of course I'd like to get man of the match but I thought he deserved it."