Cobblers earn a solid point on the road after holding Blackpool to draw

Jon Brady's dreadful luck with injuries continued as Jack Sowerby had to be stretched off early on and that was the main event of a very scrappy and stop-start first half, although Town were the better side and Will Hondermarck did go closest when denied by a good save.

The visitors remained on the front foot after half-time but they struggled to create anything clear-cut and Blackpool almost won it with a late flurry, with goalkeeper Lee Burge preserving his clean sheet thanks to a superb reaction stop in the final few minutes.

Brady was without the suspended Cameron McGeehan in addition to a host of injuries and he made four changes from last weekend’s draw at Birmingham, bringing in Sowerby, TJ Eyoma, Samy Chouchane and Tyler Roberts.

Blackpool made the slightly stronger start but Cobblers withstood their early pressure and were then first to threaten when Sam Hoskins’ well-struck effort from outside the box was parried away by Richard O’Donnell.

Once again though, Town’s best laid plans had to be ripped up and chucked away when Sowerby suffered a seemingly serious knee injury just 15 minutes in. The midfielder grabbed his knee in agony after twisting awkwardly and was stretched off.

Rob Apter's low shot was held by Lee Burge but the game lacked any kind of flow or rhythm and that was not helped by another lengthy delay when Blackpool captain James Husband needed attention for a blood injury.

The first real opportunity finally arrived on the half-hour mark as Akin Odimayo did well down the right and his ball across the penalty box fell nicely for Hondermarck, who went for the bottom corner but O’Donnell was down smartly to save.

Cobblers were enjoying a good spell as Hoskins headed over and Roberts shot into the side-netting before Blackpool went close through a Jordan Rhodes header which flew just wide of the post.

But eight additional minutes at the end of the first half summed up a stodgy encounter and even with all that time neither side were able to create a serious chance.

Cobblers were the better side at the start of the second half but injuries continued to make it almost impossible to build any momentum with Blackpool losing two players within 10 minutes of the restart.

Town were one good pass away from getting in on goal on numerous occasions but their inability to find it let the home side off the hook and Burge then kept them level, reacting sharply to tip over Rhodes’ fierce hit.

Mistakes and sloppiness continued to blight a largely poor game but with 15 minutes to go things became interesting and both sides sensed an opportunity to take all three points.

Cobblers initially had a series of chances from corners, two of which fell to Ben Fox as his near post header was saved before he also saw a shot blocked while fine defending from Husband denied substitute Martyn Waghorn.

Suddenly the contest had livened up and it was Blackpool’s turn to go close. Eyoma produced a superb tackle when the hosts had three on one before Burge showed magnificent reactions to keep out Hayden Coulson’s deflected shot.

And then the best chance of the lot fell to Apter with two minutes to play. He was sent through on goal but, under pressure from Hondermarck’s sliding challenge, he could only steer wide of the target and with that the spoils were shared.

Blackpool: O’Donnell, Husband ©, Gabriel, Evans, Casey, CJ Hamilton (Coulson 58), Offiah, Apter, Finnigan (Embleton 69), Joseph (Bondo 49), Rhodes (Norburn 69)

Subs not used: Tyrer, Pennington, Ashworth

Cobblers: Burge, Odimayo, Eyoma, Guthrie ©, Guinness-Walker, Sowerby (Hondermarck 17), Chouchane, Fox, Pinnock, Hoskins (Waghorn 79), Roberts (Fosu 71)

Subs not used: Tzanev, McCarron, Wyatt, Wilson

Referee: Alex Chilowicz

Attendance: 8,873

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