Northampton Town: Carlisle holds the answers as Cobblers look to avoid more late disappointment
Cobblers players training at Goals, Mereway. New signing Clarke Carlisle.
THE Cobblers have a conundrum they can’t seem to solve – but Countdown champion Clarke Carlisle has the answer.
The Burnley centre-back cut short his loan spell at Preston this week and was immediately drafted in by Northampton boss Aidy Boothroyd.
Carlisle will stay until the end of the season and will be tasked with plugging a leaky defence which has shipped 57 goals in npower League Two this season.
That record has seen the Cobblers slump to rock bottom of the Football League, having won just once in their past 18 games.
One of key reasons for the recent horror run has been the inability to shut teams out in the final 20 minutes of a game.
That frailty cost them once again last weekend as they went down to a 1-0 defeat at Torquay United last weekend thanks to a 75th-minute Mark Ellis header.
And the trend, which began on Boxing Day when Burton came back from 2-1 down at half-time to win 3-2, must be bucked in the game against Macclesfield at Sixfields tomorrow if the Cobblers are to enhance their survival chances.
Carlisle’s presence could prove key and it’s easy to see why as the 32-year-old, proclaimed Britain’s brainiest footballer, seems to know how to solve his new side’s problems.
“For a team pushing for promotion, it’s in the bone how to win games,” said Carlisle, who has previously been a panellist on Question Time. “When you get to the 75th minute of a game and it’s 0-0 you’re still positive and you think ‘we’ve still got time to win this game’.
“But when you’re in a team that’s in a losing streak you get to the 75th minute of a game and mentally you’re thinking ‘we better not lose it’.
“Those two different feelings promote different responses in situations and anxiety is one of a professional’s biggest enemies.
“Hopefully we can get rid of those anxieties, we can rebuild the lads’ confidence in their ability.
“No one is a professional footballer by mistake, by luck or by accident. They’re professionals because they’ve shown the ability, the work ethic and the talent to win matches.
“And if you can make that confidence flourish within a person you’ll get the best out of them and I’ve no doubt that’s what will happen in the next few months here.”
Carlisle has cited boss Boothroyd as the main reason why he chose to swap a return to parent club Burnley for a relegation battle at Sixfields.
The pair worked together at Watford, masterminding the Hornets’ march into the Premier League in the 2005/06 season.
And Carlisle has full faith that Boothroyd has the ability to turn things around at Cobblers and change the current losing mentality to a winning one.
He said: “You look at Town’s results over the past seven or eight weeks and they’re losing by the odd goal.
“They’re going ahead in 80, 85 per cent of the games, leading at half-time and then tailing off towards the end of the match.
“I wholly believe it’ll be nothing to do with fitness. In my estimation that’s all about mindset, mentality and the anxieties that creep in towards the end of the game.
“I believe Aidy will switch that mentality around and hopefully I can contribute towards that.”
Carlisle is likely to be handed a start in the centre of the Cobblers defence tomorrow, with Byron Webster, Kelvin Langmead and Ben Tozer battling it out to line up alongside the new recruit.
But long-term absentees Nana and Shane Higgs remain sidelined for the visit of 19th-placed Macclesfield, who failed to win any of their seven games in January.
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