Cobblers boss admits Peterborough United outclassed his side

Posh thumped their neighbours 5-1 to record their first League One win by more than a single goal since the 3-0 home victory over Oxford on December 9 – a run of 14 matches.

Brady, whose side beat Posh 1-0 at Sixfields in August, was reluctantly generous in his praise for Darren Ferguson’s side who came from behind to claim a third League One win on the spin.

"Obviously it’s been a tough night and I’m not going to paper over any cracks," Brady told the Northampton Chronicle. “We’ve got to hold our hands up because we were outclassed and it's very tough to take when it’s against your local rivals.

"Hats off to them, they were excellent, but I thought the goals we gave away tonight were very soft. We started well and we got the goal, but then we concede two quick goals thereafter and it wasn’t good enough.

"The way they played, I’ve got to compliment them but I don’t want to be complimenting our local rivals. We were very good when we beat them earlier in the season but we’ve had a bad night and we have to make sure we put it right.“The support we had was great again and this scoreline really hurts. We’ve had some fantastic moments this season, but we knew coming into this league we might have results like this. You just don’t want it be against your local rivals.“This level is a learning curve as we knew it would be and we have to dust ourselves down from this and bounce back at Cambridge. I’m hurting and I know the players are hurting and we have to be ready to put things right on Saturday.”

Northampton will be the first opponents for new Cambridge boss Garry Monk this weekend.