Practice makes perfect for Mills and Kioso

Cobblers’ opening two goals against Ipswich Town on Tuesday night quite literally came straight off the training pitch.

Joseph Mills and Peter Kioso combined to deadly effect on both occasions as two near-identical goals set Town well on their way to a fifth win from seven home games.

Mills’ first corner on eight minutes was expertly turned home by the onrushing Kioso before Luton’s young loanee used his head to do likewise later in the half.

The two goals were almost indistinguishable in their execution but they did not come about by accident.

“It’s easy to say this now but it is actually something we had worked on the day before the game,” explained Mills. “It was literally straight off the training ground!

“The first one goes in and you’re thinking ‘can we get joy from it again?’ and fortunately we did.

“Pete put his body the line and they were two great finishes, the first one especially. It’s nice when you work on something on the training ground and it comes to fruition on the pitch.”

Ryan Watson’s late third added the gloss to a polished victory over the play-off chasing visitors, but Cobblers’ players would have been disappointed when they returned to the dressing room and checked on other League One scores.

“Of course it’s frustrating to see other teams win,” admitted Mills. “But, at the same time, we can only control the controllables and that’s our performances and our results and Tuesday was a good start – now we need to continue.

“We have to have belief. We had that belief going into Ipswich and we’ll carry it on and that’s the message throughout the changing room.

“There’s no point giving up and there’s no point rolling over. It’s not in my nature and it’s not in any of the lads’ nature to do that.

“We have to keep fighting and keep scrapping and we’ll see where we are when we get to the end of the season.”

Regardless of results elsewhere, the Cobblers deserved credit for an emphatic victory on Tuesday, one that was built on a dominant first-half performance.

Mills continued: “It was a good win and we know exactly what we need to do.

“We spoke about it during the week and we spoke about it again because we need to start putting in performances that we can be proud of and the fans can be proud of as well.

“I thought we started well, got on top of the game and then dictated the game from then on.”