Opposition view: Salford boss Wood on what was key to stopping Cobblers

Shutting down the space for the likes of Sam Hoskins and Mitch Pinnock between defence and midfield was key to nullifying Northampton’s ‘dangerous’ attacking players, according to Salford City manager Neil Wood after his side’s 2-1 win on Saturday.

Hoskins scored his 16th of the season at Moor Lane but the first-half was otherwise dominated by Salford with Ethan Galbraith and Conor McAleny giving them a deserved 2-1 lead at the break.

It was roles reversed after half-time as Cobblers controlled the play and threatened an equaliser but one would not be forthcoming. Josh Eppiah did have the ball in the net but his goal was controversially deemed offside.

"The two halves were very different,” said Wood. “I thought we were really good in the first-half, we created some big chances and probably should have scored more goals.

"We started the second-half quite slowly and we brought a bit of pressure on ourselves but we were playing against a good team and they are in the top three for a reason so we had to defend and withstand some pressure.

"We knew they were going to introduce some top players from the bench but it’s pleasing to see it over the line because it’s a good three points.”

On what was key to stopping the division’s top scorers, Wood added: "It was important to defend the box well against them because they have good strength in depth and their front four is so dangerous with Pinnock, Hoskins, Bowie and Eppiah.

"You can’t leave that space open just in front of the back-line because they can get a shot off anywhere around those areas. You always have to protect that at all times and I thought we probably did for most of the game and we limited them to not many chances.

"There were moments where he had to really defend and it was difficult to get out of our box but I said to the lads before the game that it wasn’t going to be a pretty footballing game so we had to out-battle and out-ran them and I thought we did that.”