Last-gasp hero Elliott List was just focused on striking the ball low and hard when it dropped to him in the 92nd minute of Saturday’s dramatic 1-1 draw at Accrington Stanley.

Cobblers were heading for defeat at the Wham Stadium having trailed since the fifth minute, until List’s late heroics. Off the bench only 15 minutes earlier, the 29-year-old kept his composure when it mattered when latching onto a long ball, holding off a defender and firing low and hard past Louie Moulden.

“I just kept trying to get in behind when I came on and be a threat to their back-line,” List explained. “I saw the ball drop my way and I knew I could get on the end of it. I thought if I could get my head over it and focus on hitting it with enough power, it would end up in the back of the net.

“I thought we might go on and win it with the chance right at the end. When I came onto the pitch for the last half-an-hour, we were in the ascendency and I felt there was no reason we couldn’t go on and score one and maybe win it.

“It was great to celebrate with the fans. It’s a long way to come from Northampton so we appreciate every single one of them. We want to repay them with wins. It’s not possible to do that every week but we’ll do our best and it was nice for them to be rewarded and see us putting it all in to get a draw.”

Chris Hogg did not let the late goal gloss over what had been a disjointed and below-par away performance up until then, and List agreed with his manager’s assessment.

“The first half was below our levels,” he admitted. “We’ve been really, really good in the last few weeks but we all know the first half wasn’t good enough. But to walk away with a point after a hard, difficult game is a good result in the end, especially at a place like Accrington, but we need to go and back it up on Tuesday.

“We hung in there, if it’s not only 1-0 at that point, we don’t draw the game. The boys stuck at it, battled hard and kept it at 1-0 even though things were going against us, and when it is 1-0, you always have a chance.”