Unhappy boss Brady knows Cobblers have to tighten up

The Town boss was not happy with the defending for Omar Bogle's second-minute opener for Newport County on Saturday, and then watched on as several more good chances were gifted to the visitors in a sub-standard opening 45 minutes.

Only the heroics of goalkeeper Lee Burge kept the Cobblers in the game, with Town going on to rescue a point thanks to a stoppage time goal from Sam Hoskins.

But the Cobblers' defensive frailties have become something of a concern for Brady, with Town also letting Sutton and Stevenage score twice in their previous two games, making it five goals conceded in three games.

Mickey Demetriou's excellent long throws caused Town all sorts of issues on Saturday, with Bogle's early goal coming from one, but the team was loose in open play throughout the opening 45 minutes as well.

"We conceded a really bad goal, a really poor goal, and that is not us," said Brady.

"It is not good enough, and we are leaking too many easy goals, and when you do that you are always going to give yourself an uphill battle.

"We don't have a midweek game so we can start to work on a few things that we really need to work on, and get back to being us."

The Town boss will be getting his players ready for Saturday's FA Cup first round clash at National League side Chesterfield, who were 2-0 winners over Boreham Wood on Saturday to stay third in the table.

Brady is still not sure if any of his walking wounded will be fit to return, but the squad will be boosted by the return of Ben Fox, who has now completed the three match ban he received for his harsh dismissal in the 0-0 draw at Leyton Orient.

"I don't know how the injury front will go, but we do at least get one player back for Saturday in Foxy, which is important," said the Town boss.

"For the next league game (Gillingham away on Nov 12) we will definitely have two players back in Hylts (Danny Hylton) and Foxy, and you can see with the changes I had to make on Saturday, we have very limited options on that front line.

"That has been really, really frustrating and we are trying to find a way, so having those players back will be a huge benefit to us."

Hylton completes his suspension for his sending-off at Stevenage on Saturday, and referring to the red cards dished out to the pair Brady added: "We have paid the price for some real innocuous incidents I feel.

"Everybody feels that, we don't look at it through rose-coloured glasses.

"With the decisions we have had on the red cards, we feel hard done by on them, but unfortunately that is the inconsistency of the league at the moment and we have to just get on with it."