Mixed feelings for Brady after improved Cobblers are beaten at the death in Carabao Cup

Cobblers boss Jon Brady had mixed feelings after his side's improved performance against Wimbledon went unrewarded, beaten by Anthony Hartigan's last-gasp winner in Tuesday's Carabao Cup tie at Sixfields.

Town shaded the first-half and were then dominant in the second, but Dylan Connolly, Danny Rose and Kion Etete all missed chances before Hartigan grabbed victory at the death, his speculative long-range shot somehow squirming through Jonny Maxted.

"Jonny knows he should probably save that," said Brady. "It's come from 35 yards, but we should lock it off before it gets that far because the ball has come from out of their 18-yard box with less than a minute go.

"There are lessons to be learned in that because we did a lot of work on locking them off on transition after the weekend.

"We had so many final third entires tonight and the big thing was stopping those counter-attacks but they come forward and the lad realises it's the last minute of the game and he takes a shot from 35 yards."

However, whilst disappointed to lose, Brady was not short on positives.

"But all in all, that is the way we want to play," he added. "Yes, we need to put the ball in the back of the net a few times and we could have done tonight, but I thought our intensity was good from front to back out of possession and the way we closed them down was excellent

"And then the way we played in possession, that's how we want to move the ball - we've just got to put the ball in the net."