Steve Riches: Cobblers ignored warning signs

Published on Thursday 7 May 2009 10:19

The young boy in front of me at Leeds sobbed uncontrollably as Northampton Town plunged into relegation.

That's the hurt of this entirely avoidable tragedy.

The communal pain that now weighs so heavily on all who love this club would have been avoided by better management and a change of attitude from our players.

The club ploughed the same failing furrow when it had been writ clear for months.

Now we hear talk about bouncing back first time round.

Believe me, if we carry on with more of the same, we'll be down again by this time next year.

It became a worse weekend with the news that Tommy 'Flash' Fowler had died on Sunday night aged 84.

He made 584 appearances for the Cobblers, oh how we need some like him now!

I congratulate our fans on a wonderful show of stoical support in all the heartache at Leeds, I hope the club value your loyalty.

If I was Stuart Gray I'd have walked by now, I couldn't face the magnitude of needless relegation.

We've taken a five-year backward step.

Millions of pounds of the chairman's money were wasted until the lessons of the Terry Fenwick saga and the Martin Wilkinson mess had hit home.

At one point, we even had a highly-paid chief executive crowing about tie-ups with Seville, lucrative connections in China, and plans to milk the Latin-American market in the USA.

That era made us a laughing-stock in the eyes of our local community, which is probably why the movers and shakers of the town are so against us now.

But eventually, the Gray era heralded fresh thinking.

Evolutionary success was to grow from a realistic budget. Now even that has gone bad on us.

If I'd been at the helm I'd not be able to live with it.

That Gray intends to continue means one of two things: 1 – He has no idea what to do but needs the money, or: 2 – He's really learned from this tragedy and has the will and ability to steer the club to a recovery.

At the moment there's not enough information to convince me that this has hit home.

Unless we get an open explanation of why his chosen players turned from a promising squad of talent into a rabble that was easy meat for any group of men on 22 legs, I remain sceptical.

I've had dozens of reasoned emails from fans who pick logical holes in Gray's recent selection and tactical decisions.

Do not interpret this as a call to sack Gray.

I've never felt that is correct, football has a pitiful record of knee-jerk reactions. Neither do I want him to walk.

I want him to succeed. And I add, there is no personal animosity, I've always found him to be a lovely man.

What a huge number of fans want, is an acknowledgement of everything that has gone wrong in all its painful detail, no holds barred.

I believe the club knows things about this failure and is closing ranks.

This failure has nothing to do with luck, nothing to do with referees' decisions, nothing to do with Northampton Borough Council, nothing to do with injuries, nothing to do with budget, and nothing to do with losing so many games 'just by the odd goal'.

Yes, all those things were a problem but if we make them excuses they will cover the prime cause.

At this point I can hear your mind whirring as you prepare it to receive the Steve Riches solution to 'what sent us down'.

Sorry to disappoint, I'm an observer only.

Put me in charge of the team and I wouldn't have a clue.

But what I've observed is a manager choosing his squad of players from a tight but not unrealistic budget, and having achieved a respectable position last season, setting off this season by beating one Premiership club and totally frightening another.

Then it was a gradual decline until Christmas when it was still reasonable to assume we'd survive, and finally a horrific plunge in form that gave us what we deserved – relegation.

When queried, the answer was more of the same. Gray had lost the hearts and minds of his players. He needs to work out why, and then tell us so we can have confidence in the future.

Some things were easily seen.

Only Mark Hughes, Luke Guttridge, Danny Jackman, Andy Holt and Jason Crowe showed the sort of application we needed, but even they showed stress as those around them declined.

I hope Hughes and Crowe will accept their new deals on the table.

Abdul Osman and Giles Coke became lazy and careless to a point where they gave off body language that said they felt they were too good for us.

I'm amazed that Coke has been offered new terms.

All we can hope is that if he stays, he'll knuckle down a bit.

Osman spent more time scowling at team-mates than he did with the ball.

Gray continued to select Leon Constantine when any idiot could see that the man cannot now score goals and does not threaten a defence.

Mercifully we've not re-signed him.

The same for Colin Larkin who complained that he got passed over in favour of a non-performing succession of on-loan so-called 'strikers'.

Well, he's right on one thing, the 'strikers' we had on loan were pathetic, but then he is just a has-been in the scoring stakes.

At the start of the season he predicted he'd be up with the division's top scorers.

I promised to watch the last home game from a bath of baked beans if he did this, but my tin-opener is still in the kitchen drawer.

After initial success with loan signings, Gray ended up getting players who were worse than ones we had.

I like the loan system when used properly, but it can't be your staple diet.

On-loan players leave their minds at their parent club, they don't have the fire we needed.

After selling Mark Bunn, Gray put rookie Chris Dunn into goal instead of getting an experienced keeper.

It's true that Dunn has learned quickly and his recent performances have convinced me he has the potential to overtake Bunn's achievements, however that does not excuse the five or six points we lost while he was fumbling his way to form.

I can't blame Dunn for that, it was bad judgement from Gray.

However, that's in the past and it's good to see Dunn being offered a new deal.

I had reports that some players were turning up late for training, and that there were splits within the ranks – unsubstantiated reports, the club denied them but the on-pitch behaviour was consistent with such rumour.

Gray pulled nothing out of the bag to halt the decline and that's where I question-mark his ability.

The club end-of-season dinner and presentations went ahead in self-congratulatory style just three days before the vital last fixture at Leeds.

Why didn't Gray face down his chairman and say that instead of attending, his players must put in an evening session of extra training and open-discussion at Sixfields?

Lock them into a prison camp if necessary and bang their heads together.

I saw no evidence of iron discipline that may have halted the decline. Or of efforts to get into the psyche of the players.

Doing nothing is never an option in these circumstances, but we took it.

Maybe Gray needs to develop a nasty side.

Our current squad was put together for fitness, speed, height and skill.

It has ended up second to the ball, unable to out-run opponents, beaten in the air, gifts the ball, and is unable to beat an opponent with footwork on the floor.

I'd say that was failure.

And our front-runners can't score.

The lack of strike-power has not been a sudden discovery, so what have we done to address it?

Nothing.

We completely messed-up the Simon Cox saga, Swindon would be relegated without him.

They're also likely to be a million or so richer by selling him.

Top scorer, Adebayo Akinfenwa is rarely fit when he plays, but he's our only one with a striker's mentality.

I've written for years on the need to spend big on a striker to save money, but Akinfenwa apart all we've had is a series of second-grade losers.

This is the one spending area where paying money should save money.

Worse, now, what quality of player are we likely to attract to league two dross?

The players for next season will become clear soon, no point guessing here except to say that by his body language and his gifting of kit to supporters after the Leeds game, captain Mark Hughes seemed to be saying 'goodbye'.

I hope not.

As a central defender his heading ability is second to none.

I'd like it to work out for Liam Dolman, he went out of favour but he has a chance of clinching terms if he agrees to be part of pre-season and takes it from there.

The inevitable but desperately upsetting loss is Chris Doig.

Nothing at all wrong with his attitude, just form, speed and injury problems.

I so much hope he finds a good future, if others had his outlook we'd still be in league one.

It's a shame there isn't a big fund of money for the plainly unlucky.

Legends game

Next Wednesday May 13, our fan's team the Shoemakers take on Cobblers Legends at Sixfields, 7pm, including Ray Warburton, Eddie McGoldrick, Sean Parrish and Ian Sampson. Admission is only 1.

Thank-you

My thanks go to all readers who have responded mightily to this column.

There have been some really nice compliments from you, and I thank you too for all your incisive comments about the Cobblers.

Let's hope we can get our club back on course. Up the Cobblers!

Sport

Looking for...

Featured advertisers

Jobs

Search for a job

Motors

Search for a car

Make Model Price from Price to

Property

Search for a house

Buy Rent

Bedrooms Price from Price from Price to Price to

Weather for Northampton

Friday 10 February 2012

5 day forecast

Today

Sunny spells

Temperature: -6 C to 1 C

Wind Speed: 13 mph

Wind direction: South east

Tomorrow

Sunny spells

Temperature: -5 C to -0 C

Wind Speed: 7 mph

Wind direction: South east

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the PCC by clicking here.

Steve Riches: Cobblers ignored warning signs

Top stories

Sport