Stuart Gray was disappointed that his Northampton Town side were denied the opportunity to get off the pre-season goalscoring mark when the referee ruled out Andy Holt's first half header in Monday night's 0-0 draw with Vihren Sandanski in Kleve.

A warm evening near the Dutch-German border ensured a good work out for his side, but Gray was left to rue the referee's decision that he felt was incorrect.

"We scored a good goal that was disallowed but that is the way it goes," he said.

"There were nearly 40 free kicks in the game and in continental style, the referee was quick to clamp down on any challenge and not allow any sort of physical contact. That counted against us but generally I was pleased that we played better and passed the ball much better than we did against Brackley last Thursday.

"It was a good work out and good to get some more football into a number of senior players. Jason Crowe and Andy Holt both got 90 minutes after sitting out the Brackley game and we were pushed against what was a decent side in warm conditions.

"Vihren are one of the top ten sides in their country and were made up mainly of Portugese and Brazilian players which meant we were up against a different sort of player to the Brackley game but we gained a lot from it.

"I was pleased with the second clean sheet of pre-season although to be honest Mark Bunn did not really have too much to do. We wanted to open our account at the other end and but for us being on the wrong end of a decision we would have done.

"There were no injuries and no knocks for us and that is another positive. There is a bit of stiffness around but we have been training hard in the last few days so I would expect that.

"We fielded a more settled team in this game and that meant that a lot of the senior players got some more match time under their belts, which beats time on the training ground.

"We got Bayo on for the last 20 odd minutes and he came through fine. He did well, looked quite sharp and his ball retention was good. He added more of a physical presence to us and I was pleased with him.

"Leon Constantine also did well and when we can get Bayo and Leon partnered together that will be a partnership that I think looks very promising and will be difficult to defend against."

The next work out for the Cobblers is an unofficial, behind closed doors training game against members of the British Army based at the club's training facilities on the German-Dutch border on Tuesday afternoon.

"The lads who played 90 minutes on Monday night will sit that one out," said the Cobblers boss. "We will give some of the younger members of the squad the chance to play in that."

Youth teamers Joe Benjamin, Ross Oulton and Jon Marzetti have travelled and are likely to play in that unofficial game.