Northampton response at Barnsley leaves Kevin Nolan confident in survival

Northampton boss Kevin Nolan believes his side have what it takes to beat the drop in League One this season after they showed character to rescue a 2-2 draw against Barnsley.

After David McGoldrick cancelled out Nesta Guinness-Walker’s opener, substitute Adam Phillips thought he had given his Barnsley side the three points just seconds after coming on – only for Max Dyche to rescue a point for the Cobblers.

Nolan said: “Barnsley are a good side – not many are going to come here and take points off them.

“I’m absolutely proud of the boys with the way they took the knock back to go 2-1 down.

“And then to show the character, the determination and the courage to play in moments as well and get ourselves back into it.

“We wanted to go and win the game as well, which I was pleased about.”

Barnsley, who had sold star player Davis Keillor-Dunn to Wrexham on deadline day, endured a rough start.

Just three minutes had gone when poor communication at the back allowed ex-Red Cameron McGeehan to shoot and, although Owen Goodman made a smart stop, it fell directly to Guinness-Walker to score his second league goal of the season.

McGoldrick scored the equaliser as he headed home a Scott Banks free-kick to make it five goals in his last four games.

Substitute Phillips put his side in front in the 62nd minute, just seconds after coming off the bench, but the Cobblers rescued a point nine minutes later as Dyche capitalised on some suspect defending to equalise and leave his side just one point off safety.

Nolan is hoping the positive result will be a catalyst for the rest of the season.

“What we’ve got to do is just keep concentrating on ourselves, getting better, and if we can continue to do that and keep performing like we are then we’ll be OK,” he added.

“I really believe that we’ve got a squad capable of making sure that we have League One status next year.”

Barnsley head coach Conor Hourihane said his feelings were mixed following the result – but felt his side did enough to win.

He said: “We got a well-deserved goal from a set play which is good and then obviously we created other chances to go a couple up as well, so at half-time I felt like maybe we could have been ahead.

“I felt like the second half was a little bit carnage if I’m honest.

“Overall we had 22 shots and probably did enough to win the game.

“We could have easily won that game.”