Wrexham travelled to The Sixfields Stadium looking to close the gap on promotion rivals Wycombe Wanderers at the top of League One.
Phil Parkinson was unbeaten against Northampton Town heading into the clash and the Wrexham boss named an unchanged team from the League One victory over Crawley Town.
Goalkeeper Mark Howard kept his place and was involved in the opening goal as his long kick set Sam Smith away to finish for his first goal for the club.
Ollie Rathbone then continued his fine form as he pounced on a loose ball to then fire into the far corner and secure three vital points for Wrexham.
Winners from Wrexham’s clash with Northampton Town
Ollie Rathbone
Another fine performance from Rathbone and he is really driving his side forward with his recent performances from midfield.
He set the tone for the game from the first minute with his tenacious pressing high up the pitch and this is exactly how he scored his goal by pouncing on a loose ball before finding a composed finish.
Phil Parkinson will be delighted with the form shown by Rathbone having provided an assist for Matty James last time out and scoring in the draw at home to Birmingham City.
Sam Smith
Wrexham fans were delighted with Sam Smith’s goal and he would have been relieved to get off the mark for his new club.
His goal typified why Parkinson wanted to bring him to the club with his pace and power too much to handle for the Northampton defence and then he was composed with his finish into the far corner.
The Red Dragons will be hoping that will be the first of many in North Wales as they moved to within a point of the automatic promotion places.
Mark Howard
Didn’t have a lot to do in the game in terms of making saves but it is a clean sheet for Howard and he was involved in both Wrexham goals with some searching long goal kicks.
There was a lot of expectation that Arthur Okonkwo would regain the number one spot after his EFL Trophy performances but Howard was given the nod and did nothing to suggest he won’t continue.
Loser from Wrexham’s clash with Northampton
Jay Rodriguez
It wasn’t a poor performance from Rodriguez by any stretch of the imagination however, he will want to get off the mark for his new club sooner rather than later.
He had a chance at the start of the second half after excellent work from James McClean set the ball back to him 15 yards out but his effort was straight at the keeper.
Neat and tidy in his link play and worked hard for the team but Rodriguez will want to score soon for his new side.