Paul Simpson spoke ahead of this weekend’s trip to Northampton Town.
Speaking before our clash against the Cobblers, he said: “They were an automatic promotion team, they’ve done very well, they’ve made some good additions in the summer as well.
“They’re sat in a decent position just outside the play-offs, whether there’s enough games for them, I think they’ve only got four games left, so whether they’re going to run out of games to get into those play-off positions [I don’t know], but I’m sure Jon will be pleased with the season they’ve had.
“It’s another tough game, they’ve had a mixed bag of results and picked up some good victories against Derby County and Port Vale and they’ve also had some defeats.
“It’s the next one for us and we’ve just got to approach it in the same way and try and get a performance.
“They’re a good side at home, it’s never an easy place to go and we’ve had some tough battles against them over the time that I’ve been at the club.
“I don’t expect it to be any different, it’ll be a tough game, but we should take confidence from what we did at Peterborough.
“We’ve obviously got players missing who started that game in Dylan McGeouch and Taylor Charters because they’re not fit, but whoever is selected, I expect a proper performance from them, like we got at Peterborough, not like we had at home against Lincoln and if we do that, we can’t really ask for anymore.”
After finishing second in the goalscoring charts in Sky Bet League Two last season with 22 goals, Sam Hoskins has continued his fine form, netting on 15 occasions this term, seeing him joint fifth in Sky Bet League One for this metric.
Speaking on the attacker, Simmo said: “He’s a goalscorer, it’s as simple as that.
“He’s got an enthusiasm that's infectious, he works, he chases, but they’ve got other players as well.
“They’re a good group of players and they’re in the position in League One because they deserve to be.
“We’re in a league position because that’s where we deserve to be, but I still believe the group of players that we’ve got can go and show a better level of performance than what the league table suggests we are."
United’s fate could be sealed this weekend, even if they pick up all three points at Sixfields Stadium.
“I’ve spoken to the players about that for a few weeks that the pressure is off and everybody’s given up on us, so we just haven’t done enough, it's as simple as that.
“What I will say, it’s not through lack of trying, they are trying and it just hasn't happened for us.
“We’ve just got to make sure that over these last five games, we give 100% in every single game, 100% in every single action we do between Monday and Saturday games, and if we do that, we have to take whatever comes.”
