Northampton Town: Boothroyd says his Cobblers team will feel more comfortable away from the pressures of Sixfields
Northampton Town V Reading FC
WHISPER it quietly, but Aidy Boothroyd has got a hunch that the Cobblers might play better away from home than they do at Sixfields.
Which is perhaps just as well considering tomorrow’s game is 200 miles away on the English Riviera.
Of their five league victories during the current campaign, four have come on the team’s travels but only one on home soil.
And as well as the statistics, there is a tactical element in play as well.
At Morecambe, where the team won two weeks ago, Town played a compact system that saw the midfield area swarmed and the emphasis on quick counter-attacks from the back.
They scored from a perfect training-ground routine at a corner kick and bagged another on the break.
Admittedly, Torquay are in much better form than Morecambe, but don’t expect the blueprint to differ too much between the two games.
“We’ve got four points from two away games and after a little bit of reflection it seems to me that we’re more relaxed away from home,” said Boothroyd, who is yet to oversee a Sixfields victory.
“The crowd are so desperate for us to do well that at times it’s like you’re trying too hard, but that win will come.
“With a little bit of stability and a lot more training, it will come.”
Boothroyd witnessed exactly what Torquay are capable of when he saw them run out 1-0 winners over Dagenham & Redbridge on Tuesday night.
It was the Gulls’ fourth win on the spin and would have given Boothroyd plenty to think about, as well as providing him with some pleasure, coming as it did against the side that complete the league two relegation places alongside Town.
He is well aware of the toughness of the task that lies ahead.
“I saw them on Tuesday and they are a good team, a very strong team,” he said.
“They keep clean sheets and they’ve got players in their team that can win games.
“It’s a tough task and it’s a long way to go but we’ve had two good away results recently and we’ve got to see if we can build on that.”
And he added: “I didn’t see too much of the players on Monday because I just wanted them to recover, but on Tuesday we had a chat about what we can do better at.
“The current reality was spoken about in terms of what is expected, what was done and what was not done.
“They know they’ve either got to prove they are capable of doing what we want them to do, or they come out of the team and someone else does it.”
The defeat to Barnet last week means it has been another seven days of soul searching for the Cobblers boss, another seven days of thinking about how exactly the team’s situation can be improved.
The depth of the problems he inherited was such that there was no instant upturn in form as there often is when a new manager arrives, but Boothroyd speaks with a real passion about the job of keeping the team in the Football League.
“I’m at Northampton and I want these experiences because I know they will make me better as a manager,” he said. “We’re in a position where things can only get better. It doesn’t matter where we are now, it matters where we are when that final whistle goes on that final day of the season.
“I’m very confident that we can be away from where we are now well before that, but the proof is in the results.
“We need to start winning some games and the extra players I’m bringing in will help us to win games and build on the good things we’ve done so far.”
Boothroyd has a fully-fit squad from which to select for tomorrow’s game, with Nana and Shane Higgs, who are both out with long-term injuries, the only players not available to him.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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