Relieved Brady hails Cobblers' 'spirit and fight' after 'very hard-fought win' at Colchester

A relieved Jon Brady was over the moon with the 'character, spirit and fight' demonstrated by his side during their gutsy 1-0 victory at Colchester United on Saturday.

Jon Guthrie poked the Cobblers into a first-half lead before Kion Etete, twice, and Nicke Kabamba missed good chances to make things more comfortable either side of half-time.

That left the visitors vulnerable to a late fightback and sure enough Colchester applied plenty of pressure, but Liam Roberts made two superb stops and despite Fraser Horsfall seeing red for a blatant handball, Town clung on to make it three wins from three.

"It was a very hard-fought win," admitted Brady. "I felt, early on in the game, we looked comfortable and we were strong and obviously we get the goal from a set-piece.

"We had another opportunity from another set-piece, Fraser Horsfall gets free at the back stick and knocks the ball back, and it just falls a bit high for Kion and it gets cleared off the line.

"There's another one where Kion and Nicke got in each other's way a little bit. Nicke was coming onto it but Kion got there first, so we had our chances.

"We had four really good opportunities in their six-yard box and two get cleared off the line, but what everyone will probably remember is the pressure we had to soak up at the end.

"Fraser has done what he's done and we had to find a way to graft the win. I think we tried two or three different shapes but I'll tell you what, the spirit, the character, the fight, no-one can question that."