Hoskins: '˜Massive' Bury win shows we still believe we can stay up

Hoskins was on target as Northampton led three times during their bottom-of-the-table clash at Gigg Lane with Ash Taylor’s late winner eventually confirming Bury’s relegation to Sky Bet League Two.

Town will be desperate to avoid a similar fate but results elsewhere on Saturday mean they still require a monumental effort to climb out of the bottom four, possibly needing to beat Plymouth, Walsall and Oldham in their three remaining games.

“Even before the win on Saturday we believed we could stay up,” said Hoskins. “The players we’ve got in the dressing and the coaching staff we have, there’s so much quality there.

“We believe we can win every game. Obviously Saturday was a big confidence booster and confidence is important in football but we go into every game believing we can win.

“It’s not that straightforward all the time but hopefully we can build from Saturday. We’ll look at the mistakes because we conceded two goals again but we scored three which is a massive positive.

“We’ll take that into next week’s game and we believe that we can get another three points.”

Saturday’s success at Gigg lane represented Northampton’s first win for two months and 11 games, bringing them to within three points - effectively four including goal difference - of safety.

Hoskins added: “I think we had a point to prove because results of late haven’t been what we’re capable of and what we expect so it was good to go out there and get an important three points with a much better performance.

“Obviously it was a massive goal for us at the end but I felt that, although we were only one goal ahead at 2-1, we were comfortable and we had chances to put the game to bed before they scored their second.

“We need to look at that but that was a huge goal especially as it came so late on and it was reward for the travelling fans that have stuck by us this season and no doubt will continue to stick by us.

“It’s a frustrating season and you never like watching your team lose, just as much as we don’t like losing ourselves because it’s horrible, but Saturday was nice for them and now we’ve got to go and do it again next week.”

Town’s victory over Bury was Dean Austin’s first since replacing Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink two weeks ago, and Hoskins revealed what the message has been from the new caretaker boss, adding: “He’s said to go and express yourselves. We’ve got so much quality and he obviously knows that.

“The results are frustrating but he’s wanted us to relax, play football and enjoy it and I think Saturday showed that.

“Tuesday was very disappointing for us but up until Blackpool scored their first goal I thought we played quite well, and now it’s a massive positive to get the three points and put in a performance like we did against Bury.”