Odimayo eyes a regular starting spot for Cobblers after impressing against Gillingham

Akin Odimayo hopes his excellent performance during Saturday’s 2-0 win at Gillingham can be a springboard for him to kick-on and become a regular in Jon Brady’s starting XI following an injury-riddled first three months at Sixfields.

The 22-year-old favoured a move to Northampton over staying at previous club Swindon in the summer but an injury sustained just two days before the opening game of the season was a sign of things to come.

Nearly four months into the campaign and Odimayo is yet to both start and finish a game for the Cobblers, however he came through 81 minutes at Gillingham on Saturday and was impressive in an unfamiliar role at left-back.

"Hopefully I can get more game-time going forward,” he said afterwards. “It’s obviously been a difficult start to my time at the club but I’m over the injury now and I feel I’ve got the cobwebs out of the way.

"I was just happy to be back on the pitch and back starting games again and playing more minutes. I hadn’t played there (left-back) too many times before but it's important to be versatile and help the team in different positions and play wherever the gaffer needs me too.

"I feel I can play in quite a few positions along the back-line and I think that helps the team.”

Odimayo so nearly grabbed his first Cobblers goal at Gillingham when he brought down Ben Fox’s superb pass before being denied by the legs of goalkeeper Glenn Morris.

"I just couldn’t get the ball out of my feet,” he added. “I was trying to place it into the corner but it was stuck under my feet. I’m sure another chance will come soon and I’ll hopefully get my first goal.”

Nonetheless, Town came away from Kent with all three points and kept their fourth clean sheet of the season in doing so.

Odimayo continued: "It’s gives us a platform because we know our attackers can score goals. In our head as defenders we are focused on keeping clean sheets because if we do that, we feel we will win most games with the quality we have up front. We’ve just got to keep it clean at the back.”