Strong second half delights Brady as Cobblers make it back-to-back League One wins

Jon Brady was absent from the touchline as he served a one-game ban, with stand-in assistant Ian Sampson and first-team coach Marc Richards stepping up

Cobblers boss Jon Brady felt his side were fully deserving of all three points after a strong second half display in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Cambridge United.

Town edged a goalless first half at Sixfields but they really grabbed control of the contest in the 10 minutes after half-time when Kieron Bowie’s first goal of the season, the product of a defensive calamity, and Sam Hoskins’ 10th, which came at the end of a superb team move, steered them into a 2-0 lead.

Gassan Ahadme’s 77th minute goal made for an anxious finish but Paul Digby then saw red for Cambridge and Cobblers did what was needed to see out their second successive League One victory.

"The second half was much better," said Brady, whose side are up to 15th in the table. "We needed to be more purposeful with our forward runs.

"I thought we dominated the ball in the first half and we dominated in terms of chances but I felt we could have played with more purpose and break their back-line a bit more.

"We started to do that and the second goal, where Patrick Brough underlaps, gets to the byline and cuts it back for Sam to score, that's what we really wanted and we felt we could hurt them in that way.

"We got a bit of fortunate with the first goal when Kieron chases a lost cause and the goalkeeper makes a mess of it, but it was down to Kieron's persistence and pressure.

"We didn't finish the game how we wanted to finish it and Cambridge threw caution to the wind but to get three points and to jump up a few places in the table, that's the most important thing."