The manager was speaking after the on-loan Preston forward shot down Hartlepool at Sixfields last night, with the only goal of a 1-0 win that lifts his side to 13th in Coca-Cola League One.

The Chron understands negotiations have already taken place between Gray and the manager of Hawley's parent club Alan Irvine about extending the stay.

No decision is likely to be confirmed until Monday, but the Town boss said: "Karl wants to stay here and I am certain he will be available for us for the game against Yeovil (a week today).

"I'm just waiting on a decision from Preston and I need to speak to Alan Irvine and get a confirmation on that. Karl took his goal very well last night and I'm keen to get him on board for another month."

Despite recording back-to-back wins for the first time this season, Gray was not completely happy with his team's performance.

Hartlepool enjoyed plenty of possession around the box and had plenty of opportunities to fire balls into the box after the home side gave away a string of cheap free-kicks, but they failed to deliver and goalkeeper Frank Fielding had no real saves to make.

"Sometimes you have to win ugly," admitted Gray. "And this was an extremely ugly win. Even though we were the home side we had to play mainly on the counter, and full credit goes to Hartlepool for that.

"They're a very good side and I can't believe we've kept a clean sheet against them to be honest.

"We did the right thing in both boxes and people will look in the paper and see that Northampton have won 1-0."

Defender Mark Hughes was delighted the team bagged only its second clean sheet of the season.

"We haven't kept a clean sheet for ages so it was nice to get one," he said. "We didn't do ourselves too many favours with the free-kicks we gave away around the box but we defended well from there."