Cobblers boss Keith Curle previews Tuesday night’s opening EFL Trophy group fixture at MK Dons, kick-off 7pm, and says whatever personnel take to the field, he is looking for the same level of performance as his side produced in beating Cardiff City in the Carabao Cup on Saturday.
“Our approach doesn’t change whoever we play against and whatever the competition is,” he said.
“We’ve got a couple of players who might come into the team on Tuesday but the way we play you have to be physically fit and up to speed.
“We came back in pre-season wanting to pick up where we left off and to make sure we maintained the same mindset and fundamentals.
“We wanted to make sure the new players got an understanding of that as quickly as possible and for the players that were already here it was about re-enforcement.
“It’s enjoyable to play in a game when everybody is on the same page and everybody knows their job.
“The longer a manager and a coach is with a team the more expansive you can become in the final third and that’s what we will be moving towards when we have those fundamentals nailed down.
“Apart from set plays we haven’t done any work yet on the final third and we are still on page one of maintaining our blueprint of keeping this club on an upward curve.
“The players have got a good forward thinking mentality and they want to score goals. We want to get numbers in the right areas and the players have got a growing understanding of what we are trying to build.”