Wilder: Cobblers now tough to stop

Goals from Chris Hackett, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Sam Hoskins handed Town a superb 3-0 victory against the Sky Bet League One side at Sixfields.

Cobblers will now take their place in the draw for the second round, which takes place on Thursday.

And Wilder is in buoyant mood, with the Blackpool victory having come hot on the heels of Saturday’s 1-0 win at Bristol Rovers in the Sky Bet League Two curtain raiser.

“We have some outstanding young talent in our team and they’re playing confident, positive football,” the Cobblers boss said.

“You see the likes of Sam Hoskins who came in tonight and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who was outstanding against two physical centre-halves, and we also had Lawson (D’Ath) back.

“When we play like this and we’re positive and we work extremely hard and play with the tempo and energy we showed tonight, we’re going to be a difficult team to stop.”

Wilder made five changes to his team as he gave game time to some players who didn’t start at the Memorial Stadium last weekend.

And the selection decisions paid dividends with Hoskins and Sheffield United loanee Calvert-Lewin netting on debut, and Hackett scoring in his first start of the season.

“We changed the team around which is something we talked about at the start of the season because it’s a group effort,” said Wilder, who confirmed Nicky Adams will return against Exeter City on Saturday after being left out as a precaution.

“We had some good players who weren’t involved tonight but the lads who stepped in certainly did themselves no harm and it was an outstanding night for us.

“It’s always about getting the right result but you need to give yourself the best opportunity of getting a result by controlling the possession and controlling the play and we did that.

“I don’t think anybody can have any complaints about the scoreline and we deservedly go through to the next round.

“We also had two great chances right after half-time so if we’re being a little bit greedy it could have been more, but we’re delighted to keep a clean sheet and the damage was done first half.

“It was an outstanding first half performance and a solid, controlled one second half.”