Town have to take the positives from collapse
Cobblers V Southend United, football action. Aidy Boothroyd.
It’s important that the Cobblers take the positives from their 5-2 defeat to Southend on Saturday.
By all accounts, they were in the game for long periods and they were a bit unlucky not to score with a couple of free-kicks.
They got done with some sucker punches towards the end of the game when they were tiring and now they just need to put in a 90-minute performance.
The hardest thing for them is to stay positive because they’ve done so well since the new manager has come in.
Results have picked up and you can see that Aidy Boothroyd has got spirit in the team, with the way they’re playing and the way they’re working hard for each other.
The down side to it is that they’re still bottom of the league and it remains to be seen whether that will knock their morale and confidence.
I think they’ve got to stay positive and keep the crowd positive. The fans can see the players are working hard for each other and now they’ve got to turn things around against Barnet on Saturday.
That game is massive and it’s typical of the way things are going for the Cobblers that Barnet have picked up a bit of late.
They had a great win at Accrington. A 3-0 victory away from home is a fantastic result so they’ll be buoyed by that and it really is a six-pointer at Sixfields this weekend.
Northampton don’t want to be left adrift at the bottom of league two and it’s fortunate that Dagenham & Redbridge are still down there.
I can see Plymouth getting out of it because of the squad they’ve put together.
They’ve got some experienced pros, and Paul Wootton has just gone back there, so I can see them surviving.
I was thinking that Hereford would probably be dragged back into it but they had a good win, against Dagenham.
That keeps Dagenham close and Northampton don’t want too much of a gap opening up after the next three games.
If they can keep the gap small they’ve got a great chance of getting out of it.
I still think there’s enough in the squad to survive.
Barnet have got some players who are pleasing on the eye and who do some good things.
But they’re at the club for reasons we don’t know about, whether that be injury problems or attitude problems in the past.
Maybe they don’t always work hard enough for the team but they can certainly be match-winners on their day.
Mark Marshall and Izale McLeod are there and they’ve definitely got some decent players in their squad.
There’s been some pressure on Lawrie Sanchez but he asked to be allowed to manage the squad and get some players in and since then they’ve picked up a little bit.
If the Cobblers are to get out of their current predicament, Aidy Boothroyd’s positivity will be key.
He’s got to keep positive for the fans because if he throws the towel in and is negative in anything he says, there’s going to be problems because it will rub off on everyone else.
You can see the positivity he’s brought to the club but it’s just about getting away from the bottom two.
He’s got a bit of continuity with his team and it’s important that he sticks with that.
I can’t see him bringing too many more players in, but I’d have thought he’ll have a look at the goalkeeping situation.
However, it’s highly unlikely that he will be able to get an experienced goalkeeper in because they are all playing.
Northampton got lucky with Shane Higgs in that he was out of contract and didn’t have a club. It’s just a shame he got injured.
Saying that, I’d rather have a young keeper from a Premier League club who has been developed in the right way.
No disrespect to Freddy Hall but he’s been developed in the US system and in Bermuda.
In terms of coaching you’d maybe feel a little bit safer with a Premier League reserve, which they had in Sam Walker. Though he was probably about sixth choice at Chelsea.
Walker was doing okay but he obviously wasn’t for Aidy.
Personally, I’m a fan of Paul Walker. He’s a good goalkeeper, but he probably lacks a little bit in stature.
He hasn’t been put ahead of Hall so I can’t see him stepping in and Paul is probably one of the players who will end up leaving at the end of the year.
There were a lot of players who weren’t even in the matchday 18 on Saturday and it will be difficult for Aidy to move them on.
They are at a team who are bottom of the league and they are not even in the matchday squad so managers and scouts will be asking themselves why those players are not in the team.
Other managers and other teams will look at it and think ‘we don’t fancy him’ so where are those players going to go.
They could maybe go to a Conference team who are pushing for promotion but they’ve got their teams already in place so it’s difficult.
Like I said last week, they might just have to ride it out until the end of the season and then move on the players who are out of contract.
But Aidy has made some decent acquisitions and he can probably call 60 or 70 per cent of that team his own.
He’s re-signed Jason Crowe, he’s re-signed Kelvin Langmead and he’s signed four players on loan so how much more is he going to change?
All in all, Aidy can now call it his team.
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