'Tough lesson' for Cobblers as Brady hails 'excellent' Swansea City after Carabao Cup exit

Cobblers boss Jon Brady admitted it was a ‘tough lesson’ for his much-changed side after they were beaten 3-0 by an ‘excellent’ Swansea City in the first round of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.

Joel Piroe struck early in both halves before Josh Ginnelly’s superb strike in stoppage-time sealed a comfortable win for Michael Duff’s team as Northampton crashed out of the competition at the first round stage for the second year in a row.

"It’s a tough lesson, a real tough lesson, because you’re playing a top-level Championship side who have only made four changes from the weekend,” said Brady. “We obviously had to make seven changes because we’re having to shuffle it around and get people fit due to our situation at the moment.

"That’s left us a little bit short and we’re up against a very good Championship team who have picked a strong side. We had a couple of chances in the first half but it was hard for us and credit to them, I thought they were excellent tonight. Their passing and movement was excellent with some real good patterns.

"We knew it would be a tough night and there would be some tough moments, especially with the changes we made, but we got more minutes for certain players. There were some nice moments but there’s lot to work on and lots to sharpen up on.”