Paul Anderson on his Cobblers return: I loved my time here before - I'm delighted to be back!

The 31-year-old has endured a frustrating time of it since his first spell at the Cobblers when he made 38 appearances and scored seven goals during their 2016/17 League One campaign.

He left for Mansfield at the end of that season but after playing 40 times in his first campaign at the Stags, Anderson managed only four substitute appearances for Plymouth Argyle last season.

A free agent in the summer, the former Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town man was then invited to train with the Cobblers by manager Keith Curle last month and that paved the way for him to sign a short-term contract.

After coming off the bench in the win over Salford City last weekend, Anderson's first start came on Saturday when he played an hour of Town's 2-0 victory against Cambridge United.

"The lads have been great with me since I've come in," said Anderson. "They accepted me into the group quickly and it's obviously a results-based business.

"The three performances have been really good and I'm just delighted to be back in football and to be part of it and I'll give as much as I can to help us move up the league.

"I loved my time here before. I wasn't even here for a full season because I signed late on but I enjoyed my time and I met some great people around the club.

"It's still all the same faces and it's great to see them all again and great to be back.

"The way I've been treated, I'm just so happy to be just in and around football again - training and playing. I'm playing with a smile on my face and I'm loving being a part of it again."

Anderson's first start since rejoining the Cobblers came at wing-back but he quickly swapped with Sam Hoskins and played in a more central role as Curle looked to counter Cambridge's bright start.

"It was something the manager said halfway through the first-half," added Anderson. "It was relatively even at that time and they had played some nice football for the first 15 or 20 minutes.

"We changed it up and I think I created a bit more space with the runs I was making in behind and Sammy's obviously played out wide for the past few years and he's brilliant at doing what he does.

"We got two good goals and we knew we just needed to keep playing the ball in behind them because they didn't have great pace at the back and between our four or five attacking players we caused their defenders problems."