'That's not us and that's not what we want' - Brady says Cobblers 'reverted to type' against Crewe

Jon Brady says Cobblers' poor performance in defeat to Crewe Alexandra on Saturday was not an accurate representation of how he wants his team to go about their business.

Town never got going as their hopes of notching a third straight home win were dashed by Owen Dale's late goal as a drab game ended in victory for the visitors.

Cobblers have generally abandoned their direct approach since Keith Curle departed and instead tried to implement Brady's preference for a more pleasing-on-the-eye, passing brand of football.

But despite playing Sam Hoskins up front and two natural wide men, there was little sign of that on Saturday when they were dragged into a slugfest by Crewe, who also veered away from their possession-based approach.

"We reverted to type," said Brady. "That's not us and that's not what we want. We need to be braver on the ball.

"Under my leadership, we don't want to just kick balls aimlessly up the pitch and play like that, so I apologise and I will keep working hard to get it right with these players."

The manner of Town's performance was all the more frustrating for Brady given it came after a full week of working with his players on the training pitch.

Asked why he thought they struggled, Brady added: "I think when you're out there as a player, you have to be brave in your decision-making. The players understand that, in certain areas, they need to try and play.

"We felt there would be certain weaknesses today but that wasn't a normal Crewe performance in terms of how they usually like to play. They came to fight and that was a reaction to their performance against Burton last week but when you get moments of space, you've got to try and move the ball quickly.

"But we moved it slowly and when we had a bit of time and space, we tried to go long instead of playing through their lines. There were opportunities.

"We told them that at half-time but our movement wasn't at it up front and one or two were off it. We needed to play through the lines because at times there were huge distances when the ball was turned over.

"We could have got on the ball on the half turn and drove at them or slipped our wide man in but even when we got down the sides, our quality non-existent. We worked for one chance and we should have scored but then straight away we give them another soft goal. It's hugely frustrating."