Huws and Moult available for selection
The Cobblers squad will be boosted by the return of two players for the visit of Morecambe on Tuesday night.
Louis Moult is available again after serving a three-match ban while Emyr Huws has recovered from illness.
“Louis and Emyr both come back into the squad which is great and despite the injuries we’ve still got good competition for places,” said boss Aidy Boothroyd.
“Louis was in great form before he got himself sent off and such is the nature of football that he has now got to work doubly hard to get back to where he was because other players are now in front of him.
“There are a lot of sickness bugs going round at the minute and I’m sure Emyr would have played if I’d really needed him to on Saturday because that’s the sort of lad he is.
“Ben Harding came back into the team though and I thought he was fantastic and that just shows how hard he’s worked to get himself back fit.
“Alex Nicholls is back in to start his long road to recovery and the reception he received on Saturday was huge from everybody connected with the club.
“It is very small steps for Alex, he’ll be doing a little bit of upper body work and then over a period of time once his leg has healed he will be able to get into the pool and so on.
“Alex epitomises what I want in a footballer and we’ve got to look at him as a role model.
“He’s very capable of coming back, he’s done it before and I’m sure he will do it again.”