McWilliams and Lewis so important to Brady and Cobblers

'It may go unnoticed to the untrained eye but he is very important for us and how we want to play.'
Shaun McWilliams.Shaun McWilliams.
Shaun McWilliams.

Cobblers boss Jon Brady has emphasised the importance of his midfield trio to the team's recent excellent form.

A lot of the focus this season has centred around the team's superb defensive record, with Town keeping eight clean sheets in 14 league games.

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Forward trio Kion Etete, Mitch Pinnock and Sam Hoskins have also grabbed the headlines of late having scored or assisted nine goals in the last four games between them.

But the work of Jack Sowerby, Shaun McWilliams and Paul Lewis has also contributed to Cobblers' current run of three wins in three.

"Their use of the ball in the second-half was much better and I was really pleased with how both boys played (against Tranmere)," said Brady.

Asked specifically about McWilliams, Brady added: "I think, since we've taken over, Shaun has really improved his passing

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"He completed the moss passes against Mansfield at the weekend and his percentages were really high on his pass completion and he played forward, which is really important.

"His interceptions were fantastic and I feel he's at the top of his game at the moment and long may that continue."

Lewis has not scored or assisted in the last three wins but he was excellent against Tranmere on Saturday.

His pressing off the ball caused problems for the home team and he also won the second-half penalty which Hoskins tucked away.

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Brady said: "Is he front four or is he midfield? He's one of those players that does a lot of ground work to make the rest of the team look great.

"It may go unnoticed to the untrained eye but he is very important for us and how we want to play."

Although Cobblers have named the same XI and a similar system for each of the last four games, Brady says there have been minor tweaks in how he has set out his team.

"I'm not sure it's the exact same formula every time because there's a lot of tweaking and nipping and tucking at different times in terms of how we set out," explained Brady.

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"But at the moment, we have a consistent XI. It's about horses for courses because for different games and in different scenarios, we may make other tweaks and that might be personnel.

"We have a really strong bench and that's what we tried to do in the summer because we wanted to recruit two players for every position and at the moment this group are in a really strong moment."