Northampton boss Jon Brady and Burton head coach Mark Robinson were both content to come away with a point from Saturday’s goalless draw at Sixfields.
Callum Morton hit the post inside the first two minutes for Northampton and Sam Hoskins did likewise right at the death but little happened in-between in a largely drab contest.
“I thought we came out of the blocks really well in the first 10 minutes and we pressed them hard and nearly got our reward with Callum hitting the post,” said Brady.
“They obviously like to control the ball and with their goalkeeper it creates overloads on the back-line and it makes it very hard to go out to him.
“If you do, they can slice through you and play through the lines and we didn’t get the press quite right and we didn’t control it as well as I wanted in the first half.
“But it was still nip and tuck and both teams nullified each other a little bit so we made the subs and we looked fresh and there was more pace and energy to us.
“We get that chance at the end with Sam. He hits it well and you have to say hats off to their goalkeeper because he’s made a fabulous save and tipped it onto the post.
“That’s denied us the win so it’s such fine margins.”
Burton dominated possession in the first half but created little of note throughout. Their best moments came from range as both Ben Whitfield and Tomas Kalinauskas were denied by Lee Burge.
Robinson said: “I thought in the first half we were fairly in control. We didn’t create as much as we would like but I think things have changed since other teams have seen what we’re about.
“I felt we controlled it but we are really limited due to injuries at the moment and in the second half we turned the ball over too much.
“Elliott Watt was in agony for most of the game but he played because we don’t have any other central midfielders and our passing wasn’t good enough.
“There were opportunities to get at them but we turned the ball over far too often, but there were other elements that were good.
“They had that chance at the end but that should never happen. We are second to a ball and they come at us and those are the things that we need to get better at.
“But other than that they haven’t really troubled us and now we have two weeks to get things right and hopefully we can get a few bodies back.”
