Town's 'togetherness' key to another hard-fought victory on the road

Cobblers’ latest battling victory on the road, earned at Newport County in midweek, was testament to the team’s togetherness and spirit, according to Mitch Pinnock.

Town collected their third 1-0 win of the season, and fourth in all, thanks to Jon Guthrie’s goal late in the first-half at Rodney Parade.

The game was not a classic but Cobblers defended superbly to limit last season’s play-off finalists to precious little in front of goal as they claimed a fifth clean sheet from seven games.

“That’s a really good win because this is a tough place to come and it puts us up to third in the table, which is nice even at this early stage” said Pinnock.

“We all get on really well as a group off the pitch and I think that shows on the pitch because we all stick together when we need to.

“It’s not like you have little groups here. At some clubs I’ve been at previously you sometimes have three or four players go off on their own.

“It’s not good for the team because cracks can start to show and that’s when you start letting in goals, but it’s all good here.

“I don’t think you get the results we’ve had this season, with all the 1-0s, without being together and it is literally the whole team together.”

Cobblers prevented Newport from creating a single clear-cut chance on Tuesday, an impressive feat given the 106 minutes that were played at Rodney Parade.

Four minutes were added on in the first-half followed by 12 in the second after Newport defender Scot Bennett had to be stretchered off.

“At the end, with 12 minutes added on, we needed to dig in and I thought we handled it really well and looked comfortable,” Pinnock added.

“To be honest I actually forgot about the injury so I saw surprised when I saw the board go up! But you have to get on with it.

“Normally with so much stoppage-time, it feels like the games goes on for ages, but it actually seemed to pass quite quickly and I think that’s because we were in control.

“We handled them and we were telling each other to keep our heads because there were a few flash points and that can throw you off, but I thought we dealt with that well. and personally I felt quite comfortable and didn’t feel like they were ever going to score.

“They only had one shot on target and maybe we could have created more ourselves, but I know I should have had a penalty near the end because I was pulled back in the box.

“I had a word with the ref but he wasn’t having any of it.”

Pinnock was central to the game’s only goal when his free-kick caused chaos in the penalty box, with Guthrie eventually smashing home his third of the campaign.

The 27-year-old continued: “I always aim for Jon because his goal record isn’t too bad, is it? I think it’s better than everyone else at the moment!

“But he’s always a threat in the box and when you’ve got him and the likes of Fraser (Horsfall) and Danny (Rose) to aim for, you know that if you put it into the right area, they’ll be around there and it was a great finish for the goal.”

Pinnock was back in the team at Rodney Parade after only coming off the bench against Forest Green Rovers at the weekend.

He added: “I’ve been a bit ill lately and also the shape Forest Green played, it might have suited us to play with that three in midfield anyway.

“But I feel fine now and I’m pleased to be back in the team and help get the win.”