Northampton boss Jon Brady was delighted after his side secured back-to-back League One wins by beating Reading 3-1 at Sixfields.
The home side were dominant in the first period and goals from Sam Hoskins and Louis Appere gave them a 2-0 lead at half-time.
Reading fought back and Dom Ballard’s goal 24 minutes from time resurrected hope of a comeback, but that was killed off by Mitch Pinnock in stoppage-time.
“I think we showed both sides of our game tonight,” said Brady. “For the first 15 or 20 minutes, I felt we had them on the back foot with how we started and how we played.
“It gave us a strong foothold, especially when we got that early goal from Sam. That was really important but full respect to Reading because I think they are a high level side.
“We watched them over and over and they play with a 4-2-2-2 and their movement is excellent. We compressed them and worked so hard and in the second half we really had to dig in and show a different side to our game.
“They pushed their full-backs right on but we were a threat on the counter-attack and got that third goal at the end.
“We dominated the first 25 minutes and then had to weather a few storms but I’m just pleased to make it back-to-back wins because that’s hugely important at this level.”
Having been docked four points this season, Reading are now third from bottom in League One with just six points from their opening 10 games while Andy Yiadom – an unused substitute – was shown a red card by the referee in stoppage time.
Royals boss Ruben Selles said: “It’s a tough night and again it was the first part of the game where we were not ready.
“We came here with an idea of how to play at the start of the game but we did completely the opposite and it’s difficult to come back after those tough moments.
“We had some opportunities to equalise but their goalkeeper made two fantastic saves and then straight after we concede another goal and that makes it very difficult.
“We did well in the second half, we got the goal and we had chances to score again but you can make mistakes when chasing the game in the last few minutes and we did that.
“We need to reflect and we need to learn quickly. We’re not scoring enough goals but we’re getting into the right positions so we need to be more ruthless and more clinical with our finishing.
“That’s the thing which is stopping us from winning games.”
