Brady expects more 'bumps in the road' as youthful Cobblers learn on the job

Town have the third youngest squad in the division

Cobblers boss Jon Brady is fully expecting to be hit with more ‘bumps in the road’ this season as his young squad continues to learn and develop whilst thrust into the heat of battle.

The average age of Town's starting XI this season is just 24.6, the third youngest in League Two behind Crewe Alexandra and AFC Wimbledon. That youthful exuberance has both helped and hindered Cobblers at various points of the campaign but Brady has seldom had the chance to take young players out of the firing line when needed due to injuries, suspensions and illness.

Brady said: "It's a young group, as we have said all along, and it's always going to be a work in progress but we have set the standards and set the expectation.

"Everyone expects us to go to Chesterfield and either take them back for a home tie or go through to the next round and that's the expectation which we have set and we demand those standards ourselves.

“But we have talked about there being bumps in the road and we will need to do some fine-tuning because it won't always be plain-sailing, especially with it being a young group.

"It's up to us to make sure they stay even instead of having too many drops and too many peaks. When a young player needs to come out and rest and reset, we haven't had the luxury to do that which has been frustrating.

"We hope we don't get injuries on the back of that by overplaying players but, on the flip side, hopefully their learning accelerates.”

Next up for the Cobblers is a trip to Gillingham.

Brady added: "We won't be underestimating them and you can't underestimate the manager and his ability to get the best out of his team.

"They have been in a lot of games and I would not disrespect anything about them. I have watched them and they are a real honest, hard-working team with a very experienced manager.

"We have to make sure we are good enough to exploit any weaknesses and we will be working hard to do that and attack the game. We are looking to get back to our best and we go there trying to get three points.”