Cobblers dumped out of Carabao Cup by Wycombe despite second-half rally

Cobblers were knocked out of the Carabao Cup at the first time of asking after losing 2-1 to Wycombe Wanderers in Tuesday’s first-round tie at Sixfields.

The visitors assumed total control of the contest and were well on course for round two with just 34 minutes gone thanks to Joe Jacobson’s wonderful free-kick and a well-worked move that ended with D’Mani Mellor picking out the bottom corner.

Town rallied with an improved second-half display and deservedly halved the deficit through Louis Appére’s penalty but it came too little, too late and ultimately the damage had already been done.

Jon Brady had suggested he would use this fixture as an opportunity to rotate his squad and rest key players while giving others the chance to impress. He made seven changes in total and handed full debuts to Harvey Lintott, Ben Fox, Kieron Bowie, Ryan Haynes and Marc Leonard.

Young Liam Cross also started in the number 10 role behind Louis Appéré with Ali Koiki pushed up high on the left wing and Bowie drifting in from the right.

Bowie picked up from where he left off at the weekend and was a real livewire in the opening stages. He teed up Koiki for a good chance that Tyla Dickinson did well to keep out before the Fulham loanee brought a more routine stop from the Wycombe goalkeeper with a long-range shot.

But Wycombe took full control of the tie with two moments of League One quality either side of the half-hour mark. Jacobson’s pinpoint free-kick gave Jonny Maxted no chance and after Cross went close to a quick reply, Mellor finished off a slick move to make it 2-0 to the away side.

Northampton made a bright start to the second-half as Cross and Leonard saw shots saved, and a triple substitution by Brady injected them with more impetus. One of those changes – Mitch Pinnock – was straight into the thick of the action with two shots that were repelled by Dickinson.

The home side were much improved after the restart and they were deservedly back in the game when Appéré slotted home from the penalty spot after he was cleaned out inside the box.

However, no late onslaught materialised and bar a Pinnock shot that caused no issues for Dickinson, Wycombe were relatively comfortable in seeing out the victory, nearly adding to their tally through Nick Freeman’s effort that cannoned the post.

Cobblers: Maxted, Lintott, Magloire, Guthrie ©, Haynes, Koiki (Pinnock 61), Cross (McWilliams 61), Leonard, Fox, Bowie (Hylton 61), Appéré

Subs not used: Burge, Dyche, Sowerby, McWilliams, Abimbola, Hoskins, Pinnock, Hylton

Wycombe: Dickinson, Jacobson ©, Forino (Grimmer 45), Young (Wing 73), Horgan, Wakely (Mehmeti 73), Mellor, Freeman, Al-Hamadi (Obita 73), De Barr (Parsons 59), Pattenden

Subs not used: Gape, Blunkell

Referee: Tom Nield

Attendance: 2,711

Wycombe fans: 471