AIDY BOOTHROYD says he wants to bring in two more players as soon as possible after seeing Cobblers concede three times against a Tottenham XI.
Town were defensively frail as they gave away goals against a youthful Spurs side, who took full advantage of their hosts’ errors.
Young goalkeeper Dean Snedker could do little about the strikes from John Bostock and Ivorian striker Souleymane Coulibaly, who notched twice.
But the same could not be said for the rest of the side as John Johnson and Adebayo Akinfenwa were both guilty of misplacing passes which led to goals.
Boothroyd knows there is plenty of work to done – and he wants to add to his ranks before the visit of West Ham United in the final pre-season friendly on Tuesday night.
“I think we’re getting to the stage now where I need to get the two lads in and get working with them because we’re 10 days away from our first competitive game (against Cardiff City on August 14),” said the Town boss.
“We know it will be difficult but we want to get through that but either way I think it’s important to get a settled team.
“Once we’ve been working with them for a few months I think we’ll look back on these games and say we really did need that work.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, everybody keeps telling me, but I do get impatient.”
Snedker, who is just 17, and the injured Shane Higgs, who is out until October with an Achilles injury, are currently the only goalkeepers in the squad.
Boothroyd knows he needs a new No.1 to cover until Higgs returns and the boss says he has someone in mind to fill the void.
And when asked whether it would be a young stopper or an old pro, he said: “It depends on what I can get. Both have strengths and weaknesses.
“Dean’s got raw talent but obviously he hasn’t got the games under his belt and the experience and understanding particularly in this league.
“An older player with experience will generally be more expensive and a lot of teams won’t let them out but I’ve got somebody in mind and hopefully by Monday morning he’ll be here and we can get working.
“In the background we’ve got Shane Higgs making good progress so we’ll balance it all out and assess it.
“We got the date of October 1 for when Shane will have done his nine months so we’ve got a fantastic goalkeeper at the club and potentially a fantastic goalkeeper (Snedker) so we’re in good shape.”
The Cobblers are also thought to be on the look-out for another centre-back, with Clarke Carlisle continually linked with a return to the club.
But Boothroyd said: “Sometimes it’s not sensible to presume because we may go with what we’ve got and just adjust it. We may go with a back three or a back five.
“At some point – we did it last year – when you need tightening up sometimes you’ve got to do that in order to get it right.
“We’ll mix and match and we’ll do different things to make sure we get results.”