Bowling Coach Chris Liddle was proud of the effort the bowling group put in through the start of the season.
Northamptonshire played out a positive draw at Chelmsford last week, bowling for nearly three days after asking Essex to follow-on.
“It was brilliant to see, the lads were superb.” Liddle said.
“To put a team like Essex in the situation we did is massively encouraging. They’re a very strong side and we turned up, gave them a good fight and showed what we’re about as a team”.
Northamptonshire enforced the follow-on during Day 3 with a lead of 197 and were looking for a special bowling performance to fight towards a first Division One victory of the year.
“I thought we were relentless in both innings, really impressive. Every bowler was superb.” Liddle said.
“Sando [Ben Sanderson], Keogh, Berg, they all had great games. Tom Taylor also came back into the team and showed what he’s about, especially in the second innings”.
“I was impressed with all of the bowlers. The way they went about it was very impressive, I thought we were top drawer for something like 220 overs.”
Although Northamptonshire fell just short of the victory when the two teams shook hands at the end of Day 4, the thirteen points had been well earned and saw Northamptonshire move up in the tables.
“We got braver and were hunting for wickets without having to change how we bowled which is a great sign”.
“Having two guys, second and third slip with their helmets on trying to get any sort of half chance, it shows what we’re about as a team. We ended up shaking hands at the end, but we should be proud of how we went about it”.
Northamptonshire next head to south London to take on Surrey at The Oval on Thursday.