Opposition view: Rotherham United boss delighted with winning start to tenure

Hamshaw has been appointed Millers boss until the end of the season, replacing the sacked Steve Evans, and life was made easy for his new team by their charitable hosts at Sixfields as Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu and Sam Nombe both capitalised on poor defending.

"It's a really positive start," said Hamshaw. "A clean sheet and a goal from a set-piece is everything I want in a victory. "We had to ride a bit of a storm at the start of the second half but we could have been two or three up at half-time and I was disappointed we weren't.

"We frustrated them, we had plenty of opportunities and I don't think they had a shot on our goal in the first half, but there was always going to be reaction. Kevin would have got into them at half-time and to be fair they were the better team at the start of the second half, but then we get the second from a set-piece.

"I think we showed our quality after that and the shackles came off and that's what I've been banging on about since I came in. I'm not going to pick out individuals because I thought everyone put in a massive shift. They're blowing but that's what it takes - hard work and determination.

"We've drilled a lot of information into the players and credit to them because they've taken it on board, but there's loads of things we still need to work on."