How a half-time team talk helped Cobblers overcome Barrow with five-minute blitz

A half-time 'discussion’ – as Jon Brady put it – did the trick for the Cobblers against Barrow on Saturday as a five-minute blitz immediately after the interval ultimately saw them return to winning ways.

Town did improve after a shaky start at Sixfields but Brady was not overly impressed by his side’s first-half efforts and made his feelings clear at the break. One apiece at half-time after Josh Gordon cancelled out Sam Hoskins’ opener, whatever was said in the changing room worked a treat as Kieron Bowie and Tyler Magloire both scored within five minutes of the restart to put the game beyond Barrow’s reach.

"I felt we needed to start the second-half with intensity,” said Brady. “We talked about it at half-time and discussed a couple of things because I felt we could be better and we could be a lot more intense in certain phases of the game.

"Sometimes you get a reaction and we did in the second-half and it was great because we killed off the game with two quick goals and then controlled the game until the very end, even with 11 minutes of stoppage-time.

"We had to ride one or two storms and (Lee) Burgey made an incredible save but we saw it out well.”

Another thing that Brady asked for at half-time was quicker delivery into the penalty box, and Ali Koiki obliged within 38 seconds of the restart when his first-time cross was headed home by Bowie.

"Ali put a few crosses in in the first-half but at half-time the gaffer told us to get the ball in the box quicker and more often, especially Ali,” Bowie revealed.

"I feel like he rewarded me straight away with the cross just after half-time and it was great to score another goal. The gaffer wanted a reaction from us in the second-half and we gave him that.”