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Birmingham City away is the toughest challenge - they're the strongest League One side ever
Northampton Town manager Jon Brady considers today's trip to Birmingham City to be the hardest test of his side's season. The Cobblers head to St Andrew's having won four of their first 13 games of the new season but having posted two of those wins in the space of their last four games.
Blues, meanwhile, are planning to return to winning ways themselves here; having taken four points from the last nine available, the gap they enjoyed to the chasing pack has diminished and, indeed, after Wycombe's hammering of Stockport in the week, they have been at least temporarily dislodged from their perch at the summit.
By Brady's own admission, this will be the most difficult afternoon of Northampton's season against expensively assembled Blues, but he expects his players to give it their best shot.
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“It’s the toughest challenge of the season,” Brady told the Northampton Chronicle. “After Saturday, we would have played 10 of the top 11 in our first 14 league games. It will be a big challenge but we will face it head on and try and be at our best. They have a 100 per cent record at home since the opening day of the season but we’re taking 2,000 away from home and hopefully we can do our fans proud.
"It’s the ultimate challenge for any manager and for all players in this league. Pound for pound, they are probably the strongest League One side that's ever been put together. We need a lot to go our way and we need to be at our best but we will go there with full belief that we can get something from the game.
"You look at teams like Bolton – they are a possession-based side but they went to Birmingham and only had 27 per cent of the ball. If you go man for man, how uncomfortable could you make them? Those are the things we have to consider. We’ll have a look at what we do and how we approach it."
