'Nothing changes' for Cobblers ahead of another big game and rare TV appearance

The league positions of five of Northampton’s last six opponents reads as follows: 5th, 4th, 7th, 6th and 1st.

But then their next five are against 11th, 13th, 7th, 10th and 9th, and the lowest-placed team out of those – in-form Stockport County – arguably pose the biggest threat going of anyone into the second half of the season.

Next up though is Salford City, who remain on the fringes of the play-off battle despite defeat to Bradford City last time out. The game is live on Sky Sports and kicks off at the earlier time of 12.30pm.

"It doesn’t really change anything,” said manager Jon Brady. “We aren’t trying to look good on camera, we just want to be the best version of ourselves. It’s a long time since we played an away league game on television so it’s good for the club, but it makes no difference to us in terms of our performance and what we will need to do to win the game.

"The preparation has been good this week. It’s probably been a little bit less than we would have liked after playing (against Leyton Orient) on Monday but when you win, you just want to play again.

"We were back in on Thursday and then we’ll travel up straight after training on Friday.”

On the relentless nature of Town’s tough fixture list list, Brady added: "You have to play them at some point and it just so happens that the fixtures from early December all the way through to February, we are playing against most teams in the top 10 or 11.

"You’ve got to face it head on and there’s no fear in what we do. The games are coming thick and fast and we have picked up a few injuries but we showed in the past that we can be adaptable and we will need to be adaptable again over the next couple of weeks with what we have available.”