Northampton Town: Cobblers outclassed at Sixfields by Southend
Cobblers V Southend United. John Johnson celkebrating his goal.
FOR the second home game running the Cobblers were beaten by a late goal from one of the division’s leading sides.
Town had led Southend 2-1 at half-time thanks to goals from John Johnson and Saido Berahino but ultimately lost 5-2 as the visitors’ class told.
The Blues had started the better in a sluggish opening to the game for both teams but it was the Cobblers who took the lead.
Southend’s defence failed to deal with a Ben Tozer long throw on the right wing and John Johnson bundled home from no more than five yards.
The Blues had the ball in the back of the Northampton net soon afterwards but David Martin was adjudged to have kicked the ball out of the hands of goalkeeper Freddy Hall and the effort did not stand.
Hall could perhaps count himself fortunate on that occasion but he did well to palm away a deflected Ryan Hall shot five minutes before half-time as Southend showed plenty of attacking promise.
They got their equaliser shortly afterwards, when Sean Clohessy swept a cross over from the right that evaded everyone and landed at the feet of Martin, who took a touch and drilled left-footed into the bottom corner.
It was no less than Southend deserved but they were on the wrong end of some bad fortune when Saido Berahino – who looked at least a yard offside – got in behind the defence and converted in style to restore Town’s lead.
Paul Sturrock’s side should have equalised minutes into the second half when Liam Dickinson’s shot was spilt by Hall at the feet of Elliot Benyon, the home keeper reacting well to block the follow-up.
Northampton’s inexperienced keeper was heavily involved as Southend piled the pressure on and when he clattered Dickinson at a high ball, referee Gary Sutton had no option but to award a penalty.
Dickinson himself rammed it home in style and was booked for his wild celebration with the away supporters.
Michael Jacobs almost provided an instant response but Glenn Morris did superbly well to palm away his whipped free-kick.
Morris was nowhere near one from Ben Harding on the opposite side that struck the inside of the post just below the crossbar.
But it was the visitors who had the final say. Hall flighted an inswinging cross that Bilel Mohnsi met with a diving header that nestled in the bottom corner of the net.
Dickinson added an extra layer of gloss with a rattling shot with five minutes left to play after a quickly-taken throw-in down the Southend left.
And there was more to come when Mohsni completed a brace with a header from point-blank range at a stoppage-time corner.
Northampton: (4-1-2-3): Hall, Crowe, Langmead, Tozer, Adams, Johnson, Jacobs, Harding, Young, Berahino, Asante (Akinfenwa 85)
Subs not used: Holt, Walker, Kaziboni, Gilligan
Southend: (4-4-2): Morris, Clohessy, Phillips, Barker, Gilbert, Hall, Kalala, Timlin, Martin (Mohsni 76), Dickinson, Benyon (Sampson 82)
Subs not used: Grant, Harris, Ferdinand
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Comments
There are 19 comments to this article
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knowsley roader
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 11:49 AMThe bottom line is we were beaten by a quality team and in the case of Ryan Hall Southend had a player who is streets ahead of what Michael Jacobs can offer. Two key factors in us losing against the Shrimpers: - We had a rookie keeper who was found wanting and did not have the confidence of the two centre backs playing in front of him. Look at the number of times Tozer and Langmead put the ball in row Z rather than pass back to the keeper. - Our subs bench did not offer the Cobblers the quality that Sturrock had on his bench.The gane turned when Sturrock started to use his subs, AB was left with the dregs that Del Boy Johnson left him with and so could not compete.
mygate10
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 03:19 PMlook at the fixtures, march is the key ( make or break) month !
Marvo
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 03:07 PMAs I said in an earlier post, I do really think that we need to wait until after the home game with Barnet to see how things are. Losing home games to the likes of Swindon and Southend are no way to gauge our real standing in the division. With the majority of players still those brought to the club by Gary Johnson, you can hardly expect Aidy Boothroyd to turn things round quickly however in some respects he has done just that. We may not be quite good enough yet to go toe to toe with the elite of this division but the win at Morecambe showed we are more than capable of claiming the points against the lesser lights. The fact we ran Swindon and Southend so close for a time bodes well for the long term future, it's the short term we have to worry about. Another goalkeeper is required, plus an experienced centre-half with leadership qualities. If these two can be found AND we can get a little bit of luck (for a change) then we should be okay. Having said that, you do just feel that the footballing gods may just have turned against us.
NTFCseasonticketholder1
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 02:14 PMGood game the lads played well, a good 1st half if only the 2nd was as good, just need to play the whole 90 minutes.
MK Cobbler
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 12:29 PM.....do not end there!
MK Cobbler
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 12:27 PMAidy Boothroyd has inherited some very poor players from Johnson and it is bound to take time to sort out the mess. Unfortunately, time begins to run out in the second half of the season and relegation fighters have to win matches like yesterday that they are expected to lose. An experienced centre back and goalkeeper have to be top of AB's shopping list but our needs do end there.
FranklyFrank
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 12:24 PMI aim to make it a life-time occupation knocking Gary Johnson. Under his 'stewardship' I cannot remember such a miserable time watching the Cobblers and that includes Paddy Crerand's time with us!! He's a toad.
mack80
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 11:53 AMwe are knocking Gj but his side won and ours lost again we still have time to climb three or four spaces with some luck but that is as high as we can wish with fingers crossed I wish Mr Boothroyd all the best in the next few games and just hope we have Div 2 football at Northampton for next year
lady muck
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 10:23 AMG J is now at Yeovil...also in relegation zone ! He is making this his speciality. As for the Cobblers...buck up or set the sat-nav for exciting new destinations.
Links
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 08:54 AMWow, the language filter is strict on here. Let's hope we never have a Northamptonshire man tossing the caber in the highland games or we'll never be allowed to comment on it!
Links
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 08:52 AMTo be honest Steve since, as you rightly point out, David Cardoza has provided us with a similar budget to the team that are currently top of the table I'd suggest the only question he needs to ask himself is "Why oh why did I let that fat little ****** loose on my football club?" And let's be honest, most of us would have hired the bloke at the time too, so I don't think we can be too hard on him!
Links
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 08:51 AMPending Moderation
mygate10
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 08:00 AMat least they are putting in the effort now, dont give up on them for lossing to a promotion cert !
SteveRiches
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 06:40 AMSouthend have built that side in a relatively short time with resources similar to ours. They are top, we are bottom. David Cardoza needs to ask himself some serious questions.
Removed by moderator
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 12:45 AMA late goal? Pardon?
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