Jon Brady praised the way his side played in Saturday's narrow 2-1 defeat to Wigan Athletic.
"We deserved something today but you saw the step up in level we have made with the winning goal,” he said.
“We reduced Wigan to very little until the 68th minute and we created some fine chances ourselves. To come here and play the way we did is a real credit to us and should give us a lot of confidence.
"I thought we were very good at times. We hit the post, had shots blocked and had that effort that trickled across the line. The players are hurting but they should not have their heads down. We were in control at times against a side who were in the Championship last year and we can take a lot from that.
"We had nine players missing today but we will have a head count and see who we can get back for Tuesday. We took Jon Guthrie off as he had cramp and we aren’t taking any chances at the moment
"I want to be coming here and winning. We spoke about stepping on and being aggressive and we did that. We didn't come and sit back. We are Northampton, we have fought hard to get here and we are not going to step back and go all defensive. We have to take confidence that we can go toe to toe with the best sides in this division. We need to add consistency but we are not going to relent in how we go about things.
"We thank the fans who travelled today. We are disappointed we couldn’t give them a result to go home with but hopefully those here will have seen plenty of positives to take from the game."