Holmes hails Cobblers' spirit and says '˜we never know when we're beaten'

Northampton looked down and out when trailing 2-0 to an inspired Stevenage side, but James Collins headed one back shortly before half-time and that proved the turning point.

John-Joe O’Toole levelled shortly after the restart and Holmes then completed the turnaround with a stunning winner five minutes into time added on at the end of the game.

“It just shows the character we’ve had all season,” said Holmes. “We never know when we’re beaten.

“A lot of games this season we’ve been in front, but we showed character to come back on Saturday.

“We conceded poor goals which is unlike us but we got over the line in the end and we’ll take the win because it gets us to where we want to be.

“We were poor, especially first half, and we got a big rant from the gaffer which we needed to rally us up and get us going, but we’ll take the win.”

Not for the first time in recent weeks, Northampton were far from their fluent best on Saturday, but they dug deep and ground out three more points to extend their unbeaten run to 15 games.

Holmes added: “That happens to the best of teams. Look at Arsenal - they’re having a sticky run but you can’t say they have bad players overnight.

“We’ve been magnificent since the Portsmouth defeat, and we haven’t looked back since that day.

“Stevenage are fighting for their lives and made us defend and they’ll be pretty gutted to lose that game because their first-half display deserved something from the game.”

The victory at the Lamex made it 10 away wins in the last 11 and 13 in all this season, just two shy of the 15 away wins they managed in the three previous seasons combined.

“It’s phenomenal and championship-winning form,” added Holmes.

“We like coming away from home and we like playing at home.

“Away from home you’ve got to have good character and we didn’t show that in the first 30 minutes on Saturday, but after that we were magnificent.”