Jefferson Lake: Staying up or not, Town need a pace injection

Published on Thursday 23 April 2009 10:18

Nothing much changed as a result of the Scunthorpe draw, except for the club exiting the League One drop zone and raising several thousand blood pressures along the way.

Survival is still in the hands of Northampton Town, and their destiny could be known by the close of play on Saturday.

But what of the future?

What needs to change over the summer if the squad is to avoid another nine months of struggle?

There are two areas that have to be addressed in the close season if the Cobblers are to avoid the problems which have plagued them this season from recurring next time out.

The first is the wafer-thin resistance to set-pieces.

Stuart Gray's team are as bad at defending set plays as Colin Calderwood's were at attacking them and in neither instance should it be rocket science.

Set-pieces are essentially a great way for weaker teams to score against better opposition – the theory being that even if you don't have great players you can still get goals through being organised and having good routines.

Which may go some way to explaining why the Cobblers have lost 15 games by a single goal this season – they aren't actually that much worse than these teams, they're just not as well organised.

Theoretically that should be easy to solve and so should the second problem, one of a distinct lack of pace at the back.

Whatever Mark Hughes and Chris Doig's talents, natural quickness is not among them.

And look at the top scorers in league one this season – Jermaine Beckford, Matty Fryatt, Gary Hooper, Simon Cox – a group of players united by a single attribute: Pace.

Doig and Hughes have been fine against the rank and file of the division, and even good players who have no pace like Rickie Lambert have been nullified this term.

But up against anyone fast and it's a different story.

So top of the shopping list this summer must be a speedy centre-half who can man-mark.

Of course, Jason Crowe can fill that role but his talents are required elsewhere.

As are those of Danny Jackman, who is a first-rate central midfielder but has to play left-back because there is nobody else to do so.

Maybe that's been the problem all along. Gray has rarely had a chance to field his best 11 on a consistent basis, but what is his best 11?

Ask 10 fans and you'll probably get 10 different teams.

The core, though – Jackman, Luke Guttridge, Hughes, Adebayo Akinfenwa – would be the same, and should be in place for next season.

If they can address the issues above, and get a bit of luck with injuries, then surely things can get better than they have been this year.

And by this time next week, we should all have a good idea of what division such progress might be made in.

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Jefferson Lake: Staying up or not, Town need a pace injection

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