Northampton Town: Sturrock backs Town
Cobblers V Southend United, football action. Southend celebrating a goal.
SOUTHEND boss Paul Sturrock saw enough of the Cobblers on Saturday to deliver the verdict that they will soon prise themselves out of the relegation mire.
And the Blues boss, whose team went top of the npower League Two table as a result of their 5-2 win at Sixfields, revealed he had identified the final stages of the game as a potential weak spot for the home side. Town have lost their past three home games to late goals, with Southend scoring three in the final nine minutes to take the points at the weekend.
Prior to that, Swindon left Northampton with a victory after an injury-time winner and Burton Albion won on Boxing Day with a goal two minutes from the end.
It is an Achilles heel that was spotted by Sturrock’s scouts and exploited ruthlessly by French super-sub Bilel Mohsni, who scored twice in a devastating 14-minute cameo.
“There are definitely good signs for Northampton,” he said. “They were well organised, they played their shape very well and at 2-2 they had some good chances.
“But at the end I think we wore them down a little bit. (Bilel) Mohsni was always going to be the plan if things weren’t going well for us.
“He is a good option for us off the bench but we didn’t expect him to have quite the impact that he had in this game.”
Southend were arguably the best team to visit Sixfields this season, and their strength in depth meant that seasoned campaigners such as Neil Harris did not even make it off the bench.
Sturrock timed his substitutions to perfection to sink the Cobblers, and paid tribute to his team’s ability to change games.
“We’ve had quality players like Neil Harris that haven’t even got stripped today,” added Sturrock. “I’m excited about the squad I’ve got.
“In this game we showed that we’ve got players that can come off the bench and change games, which is something that we haven’t had for a long time.
“All we want to do is keep winning football games. Six of our next eight games are away from home and we go to some difficult places so we’ve got to keep churning results like this out.
“The more points we get on the board at this stage the better it will be for us later in the season.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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