Northampton boss hits back at Wells

Northampton Town manager Aidy Boothroyd has hit back at Nahki Wells ahead of Bradford City’s League Two play-off final at Wembley on Saturday.

Wells’ confident pre-match comments about how he always expects to score against the Cobblers — he’s scored six in five games against them — have not gone down well in the opposition camp.

The 22-year-old Bermudian is in prime form having scored three goals over two legs to help see off Burton Albion in the semi-final and take his tally to 25 in all competitions for the season. 

He’s brimming with confidence going into his second Wembley appearance this season — after the tough 5-0 League Cup final defeat to Swansea — with Crystal Palace, Burnley and Bournemouth all reported to be monitoring his progress.

He told the Bermuda Sun the promotion decider against Northampton was the perfect chance for redemption at the iconic stadium and has also said the Bantams are more deserving of being in League One.

But Boothroyd has fanned the flames ahead of the season-defining showdown and told the Northampton Chronicle: “I’m glad they are making comments like that because we’re not a very good team and we’re just going to turn up and enjoy the day!

“I’ve seen Nahki Wells’ comments about how he always scores and always does well and I thought the manager always picked the team rather than the centre-forward.

“We know Bradford are a good team and I respect Phil (Parkinson) and Steve (Parkin), they’re good lads and I like them a lot.

“When we’re doing our press interviews we’ll both be talking about each other’s teams, because they are so evenly matched.

“Both teams are going to want it so it will be about who thinks and performs the best under pressure; I think in this group we’ve got players who can cope with that.”

He added: “He is a threat, there’s no doubt about that.

“He is a good player. We’ll have a plan for Bradford defensively and we’ll have a plan for them offensively.

“It isn’t all about stopping Nahki Wells, far from it. Bradford are a good team and they haven’t got where they have by accident.

“We think we’re a good team too. We know we’ve got to be at our best to win any game and we won’t get drawn in by comments from players.”