Coach Goddard still proud after young Cobblers are well beaten by Charlton in FA Youth Cup

Cobblers U18s were knocked out of the FA Youth Cup when beaten 6-0 by Charlton Athletic at Sixfields on Saturday, writes James Wiles.

The Addicks, who are top of the U18 Professional Development League South Division, never looked back once Daniel Kanu scored an early brace.

Miguel Ngwa had a couple of good chances for Northampton but Kanu completed his hat-trick in the second-half before further goals from Jason Adigun, Myles Leaburn and Tyreece Campbell rounded off a convincing victory.

“First of all, we need to congratulate Charlton," said Cobblers U18s head coach Shane Goddard. "They were ruthless, which we knew they would be.

“We wanted to restrict them and be the team that was trying to play on the break but unfortunately, we didn’t take chances at key times.

“We felt we were well in the game at half-time, but the second-half just got away from us a little bit.

“They showed the quality, power, pace, athleticism and willing runners that they’ve got at the top half of the pitch.

“I still think there were moments when we caused them problems - it wasn’t like we didn’t get out of our box; we had some really good entries into the final third and some really good chances.

“We had moments at key times where if we made a different decision or executed our technique a little bit better, the scoreline could have been closer.

“Take nothing away from them, they thoroughly deserved to win and they were the better team on the day, but we were far more on the game than the scoreline suggests.”

The youth team return to EFL Youth Alliance League South East action next week when they travel to Southend United.