Jon Brady hails ‘professional performance’ as Northampton brush aside Fleetwood

Northampton boss Jon Brady was thrilled after his side made it four wins in five league games by beating Fleetwood 3-0 at Sixfields.

The Cobblers seized control after an even start when scoring twice in four minutes as Mitch Pinnock finished off an excellent team move before Sam Hoskins scored his 12th of the season from the penalty spot.

Fleetwood had lots of the ball in the second half but they struggled to create chances and their misery was complete in stoppage time thanks to Pinnock’s superb finish.

Northampton are up to 12th in League One and are as close to the play-offs as they are to relegation.

“I’m really happy,” said Brady. “I was so pleased with how we played and I thought it was a very professional performance.

“It was good to get the first goal quite early and then score a second one quickly afterwards and then in the second half they have to gamble a bit but we still got more chances on the break.

“Fleetwood have some very good players. I know their recent results haven’t been great but they’ve dominated possession and they’ve been in a lot of their games.

“They had 30 shots away at Stevenage but Stevenage had three and they all went in so they are a good side but the way we played and some of the football we played was really good.

“The boys were excellent, especially in the conditions. The pitch was difficult because of all the rain but to do what we did was very pleasing.”

Fleetwood remain in the relegation zone and have now conceded 16 goals and scored none in their last five games across all competitions.

Manager Lee Johnson said: “There’s a part of me that feels it wasn’t a 3-0 game but there’s also a part of me that says we’ve conceded three goals and (Jay) Lynchy’s had to make two fantastic saves.

“I thought the first 20 minutes were pretty even, territorially we probably edged it but there was always the risk of our line being cut open.

“The first goal is so important at this level and it’s a really poor goal to concede. We give a decent opponent too much space and you just can’t do that.

“We have a very young back four and although there’s quality in there, there’s also a naivety and we’ve got to try and coach discipline into them because individual errors are costing us.

“It was very passionate at half-time and that was from both the players and the staff and that’s good because it wasn’t just coming from me.

“We need to be more together as a team and we need to move out any guys who are not fully behind us for whatever reasons. That’s just a natural evolution of the squad.”