CAPTAIN Alan Reeves was at a loss to explain how his side improved so much from last week's debacle.

The centre half's rugged dominance at the back epitomised the spirit and commitment Town showed at Sixfields, a level of effort that contrasted sharply with the lacklustre performance against Stoke.

Reeves thanked the vocal army of Swindon fans who did so much to galvanise their team.

He said: "The travelling fans were great. We owed one to the supporters after last week's performance.

"We set about it. We just had to grind out a result and I thought we played really well at times."

He felt that the difference between this week and last week could be down to Town's anxiety when playing in front of their home fans.

"I don't know what was up with us last week," he said. "Maybe we are a bit apprehensive at home.

"The expectation is a bit more at home. We are expected to win, quite rightly. I think we can beat anyone in this league at home."

Reeves was delighted with the way the Town defence coped with the threat posed by Northampton's forwards.

He said: "As a defender, it's always pleasing to keep a clean sheet.

"They had a chance early on that Bart made a good save from, but apart from that, they didn't really look like scoring.

"They threw everything but the kitchen sink at us in the second half. They had three up front, but it was a case of holding on and we could have another couple.

"The only way you are going to get out of bad times in your game is just to dig in and try to work hard, which we did."

The 33-year-old admitted that fans would have every right to ask why the team did not play like that every week.

"That's been the problem," he said. "We've played well in a game, then we've been bad for two games.

"We've got to get some consistency going. This is another little start for us to get a run going.

"It's down to us to keep it going. We've shown what we can do.We know we can do it."

Reeves' fellow central defender Richard Dryden recovered from the horror of his debut, when he conceded an own goal after just eight minutes and was part of a back three that looked shaky all afternoon.

This week, the former Southampton man was a colossus.

He looked much more at home in the centre of a regular back four and showed Town fans that he could be the answer to their defensive problems.

He was relieved to have put in a better performance individually, but also praised the contribution of all his team-mates.

The beaming 31-year-old said: "I've gone from a massive low to quite a good high, really.

"Gary Alexander set the standard for us up front, up there on his own. He worked and worked and worked.

"I'm there to defend and it's nice to keep a clean sheet. It's just as nice as it is to score the winner.

"The fans were not on our backs at all. They got behind us straight away.

"We knocked it nicely around the midfield and it was an excellent performance."