Nolan and McGeehan so impressed by Dyche's 'unbelievable' attitude

The 22-year-old homegrown defender spent the first half of the season on loan at Woking but he was recalled last month and has played at least an hour in each of Town’s last three games, impressing in all of them.

He played particularly well at Mansfield on Friday evening when Cobblers withstood late pressure to keep a clean sheet, their fourth in the last seven games, in a hard-fought 1-0 victory.

"I must say that I thought Max Dyche was excellent again,” said Nolan. “He was unfortunate not to stay in the team after the Bolton game when we went back to our original three but he has an excellent attitude and he came back in and played really well.

"He headed everything and he made blocks, as did Jordan (Willis) and AK (Akin Odimayo), but I wanted to mention Dychey. He's getting his chance now and he's taking it.

"We've got a lot of competition. Tyler Magloire is on the bench and he's itching to play more minutes. We lost Aaron McGowan and TJ but Jack Baldwin came on and we're trying to build his minutes.

"But Max has come back from his loan spell and I wanted to get eyes on him. He's been fantastic in training and he's done brilliant for us when he's been given his opportunity.”

McGeehan added: "Shout out to Dychey. He's only a young lad and I didn't know much about him before he came back from his loan but his attitude is unbelievable.

"Every time he plays he gives everything and it's a pleasure to play with him. He was massive tonight and the boys at the back all did a great job, which is what you need away from home. A clean sheet was what we spoke about before the game, because we always fancy ourselves to score, and we kept them out and it was a really strong team performance.”