Cobblers boss Keith Curle was a happy man as he reflected on Tuesday night’s 1-0 away win at Stevenage, half-time substitute Harry Smith scoring the goal but later getting sent off as Town moved up to 10th in Sky Bet League 2.
“The game had a little bit of everything,” he said.
“The first half was a bit disappointing from ourselves and I was quite glad to get in at half-time 0-0.
“We reset the focus at half-time and made the change with Harry Smith. I felt we needed an extra presence up front and Harry gave us that.
“Harry has had a frustrating time but he will score goals and I was delighted for him tonight. He deserved that goal. The sending off was two yellow cards so we can’t appeal that, we just have to accept it.
“It was a little bit frantic towards the end but the players showed their willingness to work hard and put their bodies on the line for each other.
“We were brave, we got blocks in when we needed to and David Cornell made some important saves as well.
“This was always going to be a difficult game, more so for our mentality and we knew they could cause us problems if we weren’t on it. Our decision making on the ball wasn’t quite right in the first half but the second half was a lot better.
“The changing room is growing, it’s always easier to gel a group together when you are winning games but I know we have the right characters in this group and I think you could see that again by the way we defended tonight.”