Nolan proud of his players after spirited Cobblers guts out a point against Stevenage
Cobblers boss Kevin Nolan had only positive things to say about his players after they toughed out an extremely hard-fought point against Stevenage on New Year’s Day.
Decimated by injuries, Town were comfortably the better side in the first half at Sixfields and created several half chances to take the lead before they were hit by yet another setback with skipper Jon Guthrie going to ground in agony after an awkward fall.
The second half was more even and Stevenage showed greater intent but Cobblers dug in and defended with grit and determination to notch an impressive clean sheet and an important point.
"I thought we were the more dominant team, certainly in the first half,” said Nolan. “You could see the confidence was starting to come back into the lads and they were putting a few passes together, which was pleasing.
"We got into some really good areas and I thought we could have got the ball into the box a lot more and put them under pressure and make them win headers and tackles.
"But from where we were a week ago, to get a couple of draws and a clean sheet, I'm really pleased. Big Jon come off and that can rock you but it didn't and to a man they all stood up.
"They are all working hard and helping each other out and that togetherness is what we've spoken about. We can't feel sorry for ourselves. If it wasn’t for Jon’s injury and needing to shuffle things around, I felt we would have grown into the game more in the second half and maybe caused them more problems.
“But we have to keep working hard and keep moving forward because there's another big game coming up in 72 hours.”