Below-par Cobblers held at rock-bottom Scunthorpe but rise to second

Town did go second in League Two with the result, and it was another clean sheet to add to the tally, their fifth in a row and 17th of the season, but those were the only positives from a poor performance against a team who had lost nine of their past 10 games.

This was, on paper, third against bottom but it did not play out like that in a very uncomfortable first-half for the Cobblers.

There was not much in the game but all of the half chances were for the home side.

The second period played out much the same way and it took until the final 10 minutes for Town to finally have a concerted period of pressure but they had left it too late to grab a winner.

The Cobblers, already without five first-team players, suffered a double blow before kick-off at Glanford Park with Jack Sowerby (knee) and Louis Appere (muscle) the latest to be struck down by injury.

That meant Mitch Pinnock started in central midfield and Danny Rose was recalled to the forward line, with Josh Eppiah's return to the bench the one piece of good news.

Scunthorpe survived a very early scramble in their penalty box and they nearly made the most of that let-off on six minutes when Tyrese Sinclair was set away on the break but he shot straight at Liam Roberts.

There was no real flow or rhythm to either side's play in a scrappy and disjointed first-half, and Cobblers in particular were struggling to get anything to stick up front.

Scunthorpe hardly peppered Town's goal at the other end but they did have half chances, with Liam Feeney's fizzed cross flashing narrowly wide and then Sinclair's header needing to be plucked out of the air by Roberts.

Town got through to half-time on level terms and they nearly snuck ahead five minutes into the second-half but Pinnock's shot was blocked after he had been picked out by Sam Hoskins.

That did not signal an improvement in Northampton's performance though, if anything they gradually got worse and worse.

Basic passes went astray and their forward play was non-existent, with Rose and Hoskins barely getting a kick.

Jon Brady had no choice but to make changes and they nearly had an instant impact when Eppiah was sent through on goal seconds after his introduction, however, although he beat goalkeeper Rory Watson, there wasn't enough power on his shot and a defender raced back to clear off the line.

The substitutions lifted Cobblers and they finally had decent spell of pressure on the home goal, with Hoskins' cross-shot clipping the crossbar after a finger-tip stop from Rory Watson.

Further chances came in stoppage-time and there was a big opportunity for Paul Lewis who had time to pick his spot on the edge of the box after Eppiah was denied, but he dragged just wide and that was that.

Match facts

Scunthorpe: Watson, Millen, Delaney, Onariase, Rowe, Thompson (O'Malley 74), Bunn, (Hackney 78) Sinclair (Burns 87), Feeney (c), Grant, Nuttall

Subs not used: Collins, Pyke, Moore-Billam, Young

Cobblers: Roberts, Magloire, Horsfall (c), Guthrie, McGowan, Koiki, Lewis, Hoskins, Pinnock, Lubala (Ashley-Seal 75), Rose (Eppiah 75)

Subs not used: Maxted, Mills, Harriman, Pollock, Abimbola

Referee: Darren Handley

Attendance: 2,355