No blame on Burge, insists Brady, as Cobblers boss explains reason for costly delay in taking McGowan off
Jon Brady explained the reason for not immediately substituting Aaron McGowan after the defender suffered an injury against Wrexham, with the delay in taking him off costing Cobblers the crucial second goal.
Town had got themselves back to 1-1 through Cameron McGeehan when right-back McGowan appeared to pick up a problem, however he was initially left on the pitch and that proved costly after he found himself out of position as James McClean set up Jack Marriott to restore Wrexham’s lead.
"Aaron just said he was feeling his calf but I don't know how serious that is at the moment,” said Brady. “That was a problem for the second goal. He's told me he's OK but he couldn't get back in and he's not there for the cross at the back post.”
Meanwhile, Brady also defended Lee Burge after some criticism of the goalkeeper on social media, adding: "I don't put any blame on Burge. It's stopping it at source first and foremost. They are not floated crosses. They are whipped with pace and players are aggressive in how they attack those crosses. No chance is that on Burgey. Please don't suggest it is."
Despite his disappointing with the team’s overall performance, Brady did praise one player. "Tom (Eaves), for 60 minutes, was excellent,” he said. “We're still bleeding him in and trying to get him back fit. I don't want to break him and at 3-1 it was the right time to get him off but I didn't want to because he did well.”
On Nesta Guinness-Walker, who came on for his Cobblers debut at half-time, Brady added: "We had a bit of a constraint at left-back because we had to play Liam (McCarron) and he's not really a left-back. We blooded Nesta in from half-time onwards but we couldn't start him because he's not had the game-time to start. That was a constraint but he came on and he did stop crosses.”