Northampton Town manager Jon Brady has provided an update on the seven player currently sidelined by injury, in an interview with the Northampton Chronicle.
Brady’s side have been one of the surprises of the season, and currently sit in 12th in the League One table. Having finished third in League Two last season, they were one of the sides heavily tipped for relegation, but the Cobblers have been proving critics wrong all season.
They are currently in a rich vein of form, winning four of their last five games and will be looking to make that five from six as they travel to fellow League One newcomers Carlisle United on Saturday.
Eleven points and ten places currently separate the two sides in the table, who have enjoyed very different returns to the third tier. Northampton will be the overwhelming favourites going into the clash, and rightly so given the football Brady has currently got them playing.
That being said, thy have had their fair share of troubles to overcome this season, most notably an extensive injury list which sees seven players either doubtful or out of Saturday’s match. Coming up to a congested Christmas fixture schedule, Brady will want as many players available and has offered a positive update on three players who are all close to returning.
It is believed that Danny Hylton, who is yet to make an appearance this season could come into the squad in the coming weeks, with Brady stating that both Hylton alongside goalkeeper Lee Burge “aren’t far off returning”.
Further to that, the manager also provided an update on Aaron McGowan, who missed their recent 3-0 victory over relegation-threatened Fleetwood Town.
“Aaron [McGowan] just picked up a little twinge in training and we’ll see how he goes this week but it’s nothing too serious”.
The Cobblers have captain Jon Guthrie, who made his first appearance in two months against Fleetwood back in the squad, but Brady insisted he will be monitoring his minutes.
“Jon came through OK. There is some soreness and stiffness and understandably so but it’s just managing him at the moment and we will pick and choose the games we feel he can play, especially over the Christmas period when you’re playing four games in 12 days.
“We’ll have to box clever over the next few weeks in terms of what we do and how we select players who might not be able to play every game.”
However it wasn’t all positive with Ben Fox and Ali Koiki expected to be out till the end of January at the earliest and defender Tyler Magloire expected to be out for even longer as he still battles an injury sustained in late February.
Although the injuries may be amounting at the minute, Northampton have been playing with a certain confidence in recent weeks which few sides can match. If able to keep the rest of the squad healthy, they could become serious contenders for a top-half finish, something that very few would’ve predicted at the start of the season.
Writer’s View
The return of a couple of key players in the coming weeks will greatly benefit the club over the Christmas period with spirits no doubt incredibly high already. Their next five matches see them play two of the bottom three as well as three of the top nine in what isn’t the hardest run over Christmas.
Those five games could be pivotal for the direction for which the club goes in and with a number of players returning from injury, they could become even stronger and we could see them soon break into the top ten.
