Cobblers boss ready for game with joint league leaders
Cobblers boss Aidy Boothroyd is expecting joint league-leaders Rochdale to provide a stern test for his Cobblers side at Spotland on Tuesday night, a game where Luke Norris is 8/1 to score the first goal.
“It’s a tough trip, Rochdale are very good at home and they are playing very well at the moment,” he said.
“It’ll be a difficult game but we went into the Wimbledon game thinking the same and it was so if we can replicate that result then I think we will be very happy.
“Keith Hill has done a very good job there and his team’s always play a nice fluid brand of football and they are athletic.
“As everybody’s teams do though they have got weaknesses and its up to us to find those weaknesses and exploit them and stop their strengths.
“I thought we played very well for long periods in the game on Saturday but we were very sloppy with the goals we conceded.
“Zavon Hines was a terrific goal but there is error from us defensively and then their second was a very poor goal for us to concede.
“The most pleasing thing about Saturday was that we showed that this team doesn’t lack character. It might lack a bit of confidence at the moment but it certainly won’t get beaten by a lack of trying.
“We’ve done different things well in patches this season but the consistency comes from putting all those things together which is what we did to an extent last season.
“Our midfield on Saturday gave Dagenham lots of problems, playing three in midfield can be seen as being quite defensive but giving a player behind the front man a free role certainly gives us another dimension.
“We are getting there, we’ve had a quarter of the season now, it hasn’t been the best of starts without a doubt but we go into the second quarter of the season a little bit more worldly wise and a little bit more stable.”