Nolan reveals it was a deliberate ploy by Cobblers to change their approach at half-time of Chelsea tie
Cobblers boss Kevin Nolan says it was an intentional decision to play more conservatively in the second half of Tuesday’s Vertu Trophy tie against Chelsea Under-21s.
Town blitzed their young visitors with a three-goal burst in the space of 10 first half minutes – Kamarai Swyer, Michael Jacobs and Elliott List the men on target – before Nolan made a triple change at the break.
The second half passed largely without incident as Chelsea dominated possession but struggled to create too many chances, while Cobblers eased their way to three points to go top of Southern Group C, which also featured Walsall and Shrewsbury.
"I thought it was a professional performance,” reflected Nolan. “We allowed them to have the ball a lot more in the second half and that was intentional because I wanted to work on the other bits in terms of the out of possession and let the players get used to that. I also didn't want anything to happen to anyone else after Listy got a little tweak at the end of the first half.
"It was nice to be able to make so many changes from the weekend and still have a strong squad to pick from but eight of them are 24 or under so there are a lot of young lads involved. This is the first taste of professional football for some of them – the likes of Joe Wormleighton and Jack Perkins - and they are trying to establish themselves, the same goes for Max Dyche, so these are important experiences. We also got Kam and Crackers through good minutes, Valey as well, and that was all really pleasing."
Nolan and his staff will now assess the players who started on Tuesday before deciding whether they can go again against Bolton Wanderers this weekend.
He added: "There might be a few headaches for the weekend and that's what you want but we need to assess the lads from Tuesday and make sure they are all fine. A lot of them got through 90 minutes and to go again on Saturday could be difficult.
"But we'll assess them all over the next 24-48 hours and they'll hopefully be ready and rating to go in training on Thursday. I might have some tough decisions to make for Saturday but that's a nice thing for a manager."