Thomas 'impressed' by quality of candidates but Cobblers in 'no rush' to appoint new manager

Thomas says he would like to build on Jon Brady’s legacy and keep a ‘local connection’ with the next appointment but it will all depend on who the club feel is the right man for the job.

"We’ve had a lot of applications – I think we’re up to 75 – and there’s some serious applicants in that but we’re in no rush,” said Thomas. “We’ve had conversations about what we want in our next manager and what we’re looking for.

“Sammo’s in charge in the short-term and the players know him well and they like him and the rest of the staff. Ideally you always want that local connection and that was one of Jon’s strengths but there’s a couple of directions you can go in from continuity to disruption. There's two different ways.

"Recently, we have gone down the continuity route with Jon but Keith (Curle) was a bit of a disruptor at the time and both had success in different ways.

"It's never an exact science but the conversation we had today was about getting the list down to a more manageable number and then see how it goes over the next week or so. We're not in any rush and that's partly because of the structure in place at the club.

"I've been impressed by level of candidates and it's a range from people who have done well at non-league level to people who have done well at Championship level and it's about working through the list.”