Nolan reveals his message to Wheatley in one-on-one chat that inspired striker's standout display

The 19-year-old, who’s started all-but one league game this season, has impressed in some games but struggled in others since joining Cobblers on loan from United in the summer.

His inconsistency is understandable for a young striker in his first season in League One but Nolan believes he has all the raw attributes to be a success and that was the focus of training last week. Wheatley then produced a match-winning, goalscoring performance at Doncaster on Saturday.

"Hopefully that's a springboard for Ethan to go on and score a few more,” said Nolan. “We want to see him attacking defenders more and it's something we spoke about all week because we need to really utilise his key attributes in games.

"Ethan beats himself up a lot for some reason. I had him in on Friday and I told him, if I see him beating himself up, I'll end up doing it myself! I just told him to keep being positive and keep doing what he's doing because he’s doing really well.

"I've been delighted with him. Goals will come and I'm sure they'll start flowing. I'm not only judging him on goals but not many can finish his goal the way he did. He opened his foot up brilliantly and guided it into the far corner.”

Cobblers found a lot of good positions in the first half on Saturday, and they delivered plenty of balls into the Doncaster penalty box, but it was not until after the break when they turned their promising play into a sustained attacking threat.

"You need a bit of quality and Ethan showed that and it's what we've worked on with him because he's got so many good attributes,” Nolan added. "All his work came to fruition and hopefully that'll give me a lot more confidence.

"He doesn't need it because he's been excellent since he's been here but for strikers it's all about goals and I'm delighted for him and hopefully he can kick on further.”