Cobblers beaten by West Brom in pre-season friendly at Sixfields

Cobblers were beaten 3-0 by Championship side West Bromwich Albion in a pre-season friendly at Sixfields on Wednesday.

All eight summer signings were given vital minutes and manager Jon Brady also took a look at another trialist as his side were beaten by goals from Daryl Dike, Karlan Grant and Adam Reach.

Three new additions were included in the starting line-up – Sam Sherring, Akin Odimayo and Ben Fox – while the other five were on the bench. The squad also included another trialist who was given a run-out in the second-half.

West Brom made a bright start and had chances to go in front but Jed Wallace dragged wide and then shot too close to Jonny Maxted before Dike blazed over the crossbar at the end of a slick counter-attack.

Both sides lost a player to injury in the opening 20 minutes as Ali Koiki trudged off with what looked a hip injury for Northampton while Callum Robinson was unable to recover from an early collision with Maxted.

Grant replaced Robinson and he poked over from close-range within moments before Cobblers almost struck against the run of play when a fabulous team move ended with Mitch Pinnock’s goalbound shot cleared off the line.

Town made a few too many errors but West Brom failed to punish them and the first-half ended goalless.

Danny Hylton came on at half-time and Kieron Bowie followed five minutes later but Cobblers immediately fell behind with Dike’s shot finding its way through the legs of Maxted after good work by Wallace down the right flank.

A steady stream of substitutions made for a stop-start second-half with few goalmouth incidents, although Maxted did produce a couple of good saves in quick succession from Alex Mowatt and Grady Diangana.

West Brom doubled their lead with a fine goal from Grant who latched onto Diangana’s defence-splitting pass and finished coolly.

Cobblers’ best chance of the evening came in the final 10 minutes but Hylton got his effort all wrong when the goal was gaping, and West Brom added some late gloss through Reach’s messy 88th-minute finish.

Cobblers: Maxted, Odimayo (Lintott 78), Guthrie © (Tomlinson 81), Sherring (Dyche 81), Koiki (Haynes 13), McWilliams (Cross 74), Sowerby (Abimbola 72), Fox (Bowie 50), Hoskins (Connor 76), Pinnock (Trialist 72), Appere (Hylton 45)

Subs not used: Burge

West Brom: Button (Palmer 45), Furlong, Townsend (Mowatt 65), O’Shea, Ajayi, Livermore (Swift 65), Molumby (Diangana 56), Wallace, Reach, Robinson (Grant 12), Dike (Phillips 56)

Referee: Dean Whitestone

Attendance: 1,907

West Brom fans: 480