Sam Sherring thriving on the added responsibility after taking on leadership role within Cobblers' changing room

Having improved and developed impressively during his first season at Sixfields, the 23-year-old is now one of Jon Brady’s most important and most trusted players.

He might be young in age but Sherring has played more than 100 games of senior football, including 61 for Cobblers, and is developing into a natural leader. And he’s thriving upon the extra responsibility that comes with being a senior member of the team.

"I’m loving it,” said Sherring. “I think I’ve done well so far this season. There are definitely things to work on – there always is – but I'm happy with my performances and it's just nice to be playing so regularly and to be injury-free – long may that continue.

"I've loved having that extra responsibility and that's something that I've really developed and grown into during my time at the club. I'm only 23 but I feel quite mature in football terms because I've played a lot of games at senior level now, especially since I moved here.

"I enjoy that bit of pressure and I’m enjoying the leadership role that I've taken on this season, but the main thing is to stay fit and keep playing as much as I can and help the team win games.”

You can never be certain how players will make the step up but Sherring always seemed well suited to League One, and so it has proven.

"I'm really enjoying League One – I think we all are,” he added. “The challenges are very different from League Two because there are some really good teams at this level and you have to be on your game every single week.

"But the whole point of winning promotion last year was to challenge ourselves against the best and come up against these big clubs.

"I think we're doing all right so far but we can't get too ahead of ourselves. We have to keep working hard and keep picking up results.”

Now comes the busiest time of year for a football player: the Christmas rush. Cobblers have four games in 10 games and Sherring will be expected to play every minute of all four if he remains fit.

He continued: "You can't really have too much of a Christmas as a footballer because there are so many games and you're always preparing, recovering or playing.

"It’s definitely important to switch off and enjoy time away from football but you can’t go too far one way or the other and I think we’re all quite good at that here.

"We have four games in 10 days coming up so we have to stay professional and keep doing everything right. As much as we all love Christmas, we can't be eating too much or indulging ourselves.

"It's part of the job and it's one of the sacrifices we make but we get so many perks as footballers that we can't complain too much.”