Too soon for Northampton ‘staying up’ songs – Nolan

Northampton Town manager Kevin Nolan believes it is too early for their fans to be singing about ‘staying up’ despite the team achieving back-to-back league wins for the first time this season.

The Cobblers followed up a 3-2 home win over Huddersfield Town with a 1-0 success away to Mansfield Town – a result which put them seven points clear of the League One relegation places.

But they still have 16 matches left to play and Nolan – who was appointed just before Christmas – thinks the fans’ show of confidence about where they will be at the end of the campaign may be premature.

“It’s doing my head in when the fans sing ‘we’re staying up’. I don’t like it. I’m not having a go at them but how many games have we got left?” he told BBC Radio Northampton.

“There’s a third of the league to go so can they find something else to sing please!”

The victory over Mansfield was achieved despite Sam Hoskins missing a first-half penalty following a foul on Liam Shaw.

“In adversity, you’ve got to react in the the right way and I thought we did,” said Nolan.

“He missed a penalty, everyone expected him to score, all of a sudden it changes within seconds and everybody goes from elation (to disappointment), but we were very calm and collected and I was delighted with that.”

Cameron McGeehan scored the only goal of the game – his eighth of the season – and the win put Northampton 17th in the table ahead of Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off against promotion-chasing Wrexham at Sixfields (12:30 GMT).

Nolan added: “I love clean sheets. I love 1-0 away wins, and six points in the last two games is a fantastic achievement by all the lads.

“It’s back-to-back wins for the first time this season and it’s something we spoke about before the game, we challenged the lads to produce another performance.

“They stood up to a barrage from Mansfield, who put a lot of balls in the box, (and have some) big lads. Sometimes we put ourselves under a lot pressure, we could have been a bit more comfortable with the ball but where we’re at, that little anxiety does creep in when you’re (only) 1-0 up.”