Northampton Town boss Chris Wilder has praised his side's defence following their 1-0 win over Portsmouth.

The Cobblers moved to within three points of the playoff places last night as they earned a narrow victory at Sixfields Stadium.

Wilder believes that his team had to show how good they are at the back in order to hold off Pompey and claim the points.

"We've played some great football this season, but here it was the quality of our defence which was so important," he is quoted as saying by Sky Sports News. "We like to go at teams but sometimes sides push us back and we have to be able to handle that.

"Sometimes you've just got to show those qualities without the ball to try and keep it out the net and we had to deal with a big threat in the second half."

Northampton are back in action on Saturday when they make the trip to promotion rivals Plymouth Argyle.