Jon Brady takes positives from youthful Northampton display despite cup exit

Northampton manager Jon Brady and Wycombe assistant boss Richard Dobson were both pleased with the efforts of their younger players during Tuesday’s Carabao Cup tie at Sixfields.

Wycombe prevailed 2-1 through first-half goals from Joe Jacobson and D’Mani Mellor but they had to survive a second-half fightback as Louis Appere halved the deficit from the penalty spot.

Northampton rang the changes, making seven in all, but they could not recover from a sluggish first 45 minutes.

“I think it was a good exercise for us in many ways despite the result,” said Brady. “What we wanted to do tonight was to give the younger players an opportunity and eight of the starting XI were aged 24 or under.

“We wanted to have a look at them. There could have been better moments in possession in terms of when to retain and when to play those key passes and the ball was turned over too much early on.

“But we were much better in the second half. We played with a lot more purpose and a lot more intensity and to have 20 shots in total tonight bodes well. We just couldn’t get that second goal.”

Chairboys boss Gareth Ainsworth missed the game due to family commitments so his assistant stepped in.

“We are really pleased,” said Dobson. “We obviously made a lot of changes to the team and we had a lot of younger players involved.

“I asked them before the game to grow into men tonight and understand how to win a game of football against a very good League Two team and I was delighted with their contribution.

“It was a very professional performance from a youthful team. We feel we have some good young players coming through but it’s time to come of age and they don’t want to be sat there in the stands.”