Kevin Nolan confident goals will begin to flow for Northampton’s Ethan Wheatley

Northampton boss Kevin Nolan is confident the goals will begin to flow for Ethan Wheatley after the Manchester United loanee was on target in the 2-1 League One victory over Doncaster.

Wheatley grabbed the equaliser as Town came from behind, with Sam Hoskins scoring a second-half penalty to secure the win.

Nolan admitted the 19-year-old had grown frustrated with the lack of goals so far during his spell but said he had full faith Wheatley would hit the scoring trail.

“It was a fantastic goal by Ethan, which we know he can produce, so hopefully that will be a springboard for him to go on and get more,” Nolan said.

“He beats himself up too much when he’s not scoring but I told him, during the week, if he keeps doing that, I will beat him up, because I’ve been delighted with him and I know the goals will come.

“It was a well-deserved win. We were unfortunate to go in 1-0 down at half-time and I spoke to the lads and told them, when we get opportunities, we have to put the keeper under more pressure and the response was excellent.

“We then scored the penalty and it should have ended up 3-1 or 4-1. I don’t think that would have flattered us, but we still need to be more ruthless and put those chances away and I’ll keep barking on about that.

“The lads who came on made really good contributions to the team too and I have been talking about the importance of that since building the squad over the summer.”

Grant McCann felt Doncaster were battling both Northampton and the match officials as his side fell to defeat.

While having no qualms with the two penalties awarded to the Cobblers, McCann believed decisions went against Rovers – including an offside call for Wheatley’s equaliser – but was ultimately left frustrated by the manner of his side’s performance as they let the game slip away, having led through Ben Close.

“We got in at half-time and the message was that ‘you’re not only going to have to beat Northampton today, you’re going to have to beat the officials as well’,” McCann said. “It was so frustrating, all the first half.

“Every little decision went against us.

“I’m not one to moan about officials but every decision went against us particularly in the first half but it was early in the second half as well.

“Wheatley was offside and we had planned for that. We knew he likes to come back from an offside position but as the ball was delivered, he was off.

“But from then on in, we were disappointing, poor. We stopped taking responsibility and made mistakes.

“There’s a lack of confidence in the group at the minute and it’s our job to get to the bottom of it.”