Northampton manager Stuart Gray was satisifed with a 1-1 draw against Southend after his team had been hit by a sickness bug.Two players were left ill at the team's hotel, while Daniel Jones and Danny Jackman battled the sickness enough to be able to play.

Colin Larkin had opened the scoring with a header for the Cobblers before Lee Barnard salvaged a point for the promotion-pushing Blues as the Shrimpers extended their unbeaten run to 12 games.

"I'm really pleased with the attitude of my players after a number of them fell sick," said Gray.

"Despite all that we created the best chances in the first half and although we had to dig in in the second half, I thought we could have gone on to get the win.

"But I'm disappointed with the goal we did let it because they reacted quicker than we did when the ball came back off the crossbar."

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