Cobblers FanStand: Progress is clear despite defeat
Northampton Town Football Club v Oxford United at The Kassam Stadium. Aidy Boothroyd.
James Averill: Aidy Boothroyd’s second game in charge will have given him an even bigger idea of just how much hard work there still is to be done.
Following a promising first match against Crewe, we headed to Oxford, a place where we have difficulty winning at the best of times.
I can remember one win there in my time following the Cobblers, a 3-1 victory which almost guaranteed us promotion under Colin Calderwood.
I travelled to the Kassam with less expectation this time around, even though Oxford were on a dreadful run themselves.
Aidy Boothroyd’s team selection certainly contained a few surprises.
Recalled to the team were Paul Turnbull and Nick McKoy, while John Johnson reverted to centre-back.
Johnson had given a very impressive performance as a holding midfielder the game before, and we were all told that he would retain this position.
Whether there were circumstances during the week that forced this change, I don’t know, but I certainly felt we lacked Johnson’s energy in midfield, as well as his ability to bomb forward in a game where we didn’t really look like scoring.
That’s not to say I don’t think his replacement did well.
I thought Paul Turnbull put in his best performance as a Cobblers player, putting in some great tackles and scoring a wonderful goal that would have stood had the referee not been so whistle happy.
Turnbull, like Jake Robinson, was one of the bigger signings in the summer before he too found himself frozen out by Gary Johnson, despite a fantastic pre-season.
I maintain that players like Robinson and Turnbull are good players who needed a chance to assert themselves in a new team.
Hopefully AB will give them that chance.
With a different team and a different formation to the first game, it took a little while for us to get into the match, but once in it I thought we had the better chances in the first half.
Sadly, we didn’t really look like taking these chances.
Typically, Oxford scored with their first real opportunity.
We failed to clear the ball sufficiently, then gave Tom Craddock too much time in the box to finish.
It was a good finish, but he shouldn’t have been allowed the strike.
It was a real shame, because up until then our defence had looked solid.
But in a game where we were toothless going forward, once we conceded I didn’t really feel as if we could get back into it.
The day was summed up when Bayo, so consistent from the penalty spot, had his spot-kick saved.
We could have been on the pitch for another 90 minutes and we wouldn’t have scored.
There are positives to take, though.
Mistakes at the back are becoming far less frequent, and I do feel the side are becoming more confident.
But these mistakes are still being punished ruthlessly, so it is imperative we cut them even further.
I believe that with hard work, Boothroyd will be the man to do this.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Lee Wade
The Cobblers enter the busy festive period on the back of a 10-game winless run and sit 90th in the Football League.
Maybe Santa can bring us some presents - some luck maybe, a 90-minute performance, some stout defending, some good finishing and maybe even a win please.
Us Cobblers fans have been good and remarkably loyal this year and deserve something!
We really do need a win, preferably on Boxing Day would be ideal.
It has been a torrid year which has yielded just nine wins in 47 games.
Boy we have suffered.
The year started with club legend Ian Sampson in charge and ends with the promising Aidy Boothroyd at the helm. In between is where it all went wrong.
There were some positive signs again on Saturday. We seem to be okay for 45 minutes but can’t yet manage a 90-minute performance.
We also need our so-called match-winners to start winning matches for us.
It was always going to take AB time to sort us out and he will.
He will work out what we need and the chairman will back him with reasonable funds I’m sure.
We just need to make sure we stay outside of the bottom two otherwise any returning confidence could be quickly wiped out.
I have just realised that we haven’t actually had a win since the start of this FanStand column back on October 6.
There will be much rejoicing when we finally break that hoodoo!
Dave Fleming
Season of goodwill? Let us hope it does not apply to The Brewers and The Robins. What do we want for Christmas ? Three points would be lovely. I did not go to the Oxford game, and listened with increasing gloom as we dominated, failed to score and then leaked two goals against opponents with equally poor recent form.
As the year ends the reality is that we are 18 points from the play-offs and three from relegation.
No team in our division has won less at home. On current form Burton (Zola!) (possibly) and Swindon (probably) can beat us.
We will then be halfway through the season. If we assume that we need at least 52 points to stay up and we draw a third of the remaining games we will need to win nine times...
We have only won four times to date.
When you have been losing badly, draws seem a bonus but in our position the simple maths dictate that draws need to be converted into wins.
Unlike last season when Stockport were well adrift, it is tight at the bottom of the table and it would be unwise to take opponents’ equally dodgy form for granted - consider Bradford’s startling win at Southend last Friday.
Both they and Plymouth draw bigger home crowds and Barnet and Dagenham have cup revenue to come (Johnstone’s Paint Trophy and FA)
Sorry to sound gloomy at a festive time, but we should not underestimate our present position.
Prove me wrong, Aidy, with a delayed ‘double-new manager’s bounce’ that will propel us up the table.
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