Joe Widdowson admits he hasn’t watched the play-off final defeat to Bradford City again.
But the left-back, who came on as a second-half substitute in the disappointing 3-0 reverse, says the group are ready to use the nature of that loss to inspire them to go one better and win promotion this season.
“It took a while to get over that and it was a really disappointing way to finish last season,” said Widdowson, who captained the Cobblers in their friendly match at Cogenhoe United on Tuesday night.
“But it’s in the past and we move on to something new now. This is the start of something fresh and new.
“We have to go again and put it out of our minds. I haven’t watched the game again and I don’t want to watch it.
“I don’t think we’ll forget it because it was a massive occasion and a huge game, we just have to use it now to spur us on to bigger and better things.”
Widdowson will hope those things involve him; he missed the end of last season with a knee injury that has now completely healed.
“I feel like I’m completely over that now, it hasn’t caused me any problems over pre-season and I’m feeling really fit and really good,” he said.
A couple of weeks of rest and a rigorous summer training schedule has helped that.
“It has been very hot,” he said. “But the training has been good. We work hard and we work intensely under this manager.
“We all enjoy it and it’s all football-based so it’s not so unbearable when you’ve got a football involved.
“That’s what we need because it is a hard time. The week in Croatia was very hard because the sunshine makes you sweat a bit more but it was a good week, we got through a lot.”