Nolan expects Cobblers to 'play a bit more' once confidence returns
Kevin Nolan hopes and expects Cobblers to start ‘playing a bit more’ once confidence returns after they took a direct approach to Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Shrewsbury.
Town’s game plan at New Meadow was largely to play up to target man Tom Eaves and look for knockdowns, something that was partially effective but the lack of fit, natural attacking players on the pitch was clearly a hindrance.
Over time, Nolan hopes to open up and play more expansively but restoring confidence to his struggling team is the first priority.
Nolan said: "Pitches dictate what you're going to do and it's a quick pitch at Shrewsbury and it's quite bobbly so you can't really get the ball down. It was all about playing off the big man and playing further up the pitch.
"It didn't work as much as I would have liked because I want to dominate more in the final third and the middle third but when you come into a club that's been losing games and conceding goals, sometimes it takes a while for the confidence to come back.
"Slowly but surely I see the lads starting to get that confidence back and starting to play a bit more. In these situations everything becomes a bit fuzzy in your head and you're worried you'll make the wrong choice.
"I've just tried to give the lads real clarity and once that clarity comes, the confidence will start to come back and when that happens, I'll be expecting them to take touches and make passes and we'll get there slowly but surely.
"First and foremost I need to shore up the defence and that's not just the defence, that's the whole team and I thought we did that really well. I'm gutted we conceded but it was a great response. That's probably one of the most pleasing things to come out of today."