Kevin Nolan hailed a ‘fantastic win’ for his Northampton side after they beat Bristol Rovers 2-1 at Sixfields.
Separated by two points and one place near the bottom of Sky Bet League One, this was a big game for both teams and Rovers struck first thanks to Scott Sinclair’s goal two minutes after half-time.
However, Burnley loanee Dara Costelloe soon levelled, his first Northampton goal, before substitute Nesta Guinness-Walker won the game with his first touch.
“It’s a fantastic win and I thought we were well deserving of it,” said Nolan. “We were the better team throughout and I was really pleased with a lot of our play and the character we showed after going 1-0 down.
“It could easily have been a free-kick to us just before their goal. I think it was, but the referee has missed it and we responded really well.
“We have shown we can raise our game against the big boys but I’ve said to the lads that you have to do it against the teams around you and they did that in abundance today.
“I was just asking for calm after we went behind because there was still a lot of time left and we were always going to get chances if we kept playing like we had done in the first half.
“It’s about taking those chances and we did that and I thought we were well worth the win in the end and I’m absolutely delighted. That’s three out of four now, which is really good, but I want more.”
Rovers boss Inigo Calderon said: “It’s a difficult one to explain and it’s a difficult one to take, especially playing against a team near us in the table. The game was more or less under control.
“We probably started to kill the game too early but I didn’t feel we were struggling at the time they scored their equaliser, in fact we had a clear chance to score to make it 2-0 just before.
“We concede a free-kick and they score from the second phase and everything changes but, until then, we controlled the game in the conditions that you have to expect coming here.
“Both their goals are disappointing. We switched off and they come from mistakes. I felt we had been defending really well and we knew we would have to because they put everything into the box.
” Until the goals, I didn’t think they created too much and Jed (Ward) didn’t have much to do but you cannot switch off like we did because you can lose.
“Scoring that early in the second half was perfect and I felt we had the game under control, but maybe we stopped playing and that gave them the chance the get back into the game.
“It was not like a goal was coming for them, so I’m disappointed.”
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