Cobblers hold Premier League Coventry in positive pre-season showing
Cobblers held Premier League Coventry City to a goalless draw in Saturday’s second pre-season friendly at Sixfields.
Town showed excellent concentration, discipline and work ethic to limit Frank Lampard’s Sky Blues to not a single chance throughout the first half, before the usual flurry of substitutions led to a somewhat more open second 45 minutes.
Chris Hogg would have been fairly happy with what he saw in the 67 minutes played by his starting XI as City were kept at arm’s length, and even after all the changes in the latter stages, the away side still struggled to find a way through.
Zach Jeacock, James Maxwell, Logan Briggs and Harvey Saunders all started at Sixfields, but Town’s other summer signing – Janoi Donacien – was one of four senior players not involved, alongside Jack Perkins, Liam Shaw and Jack Burroughs. Two trialists, experienced midfielder Grant Ward and young defender Jake Rooney, were on the bench, in addition to several youth team players.
This was always going to be another test of Northampton’s shape and discipline out of possession after last week’s pre-season opener at Leicester and they passed with flying colours in the first half, even though Coventry, who were captained by Matt Grimes on his return to Sixfields, dominated the ball.
The home side played 4-4-2 off the ball, with Elliott List and Sam Hoskins up front and Saunders and Briggs on either wing, and when they did nick it back, Hoskins dropped into the number 10 role in more of a 4-2-3-1.
The opening 30 minutes yielded just the one chance of any note and that fell to Cobblers after Briggs and List combined to win the ball back and release Hoskins, who cut inside a defender but skied over the crossbar.
As it turned out, that was the only meaningful shot throughout the entire first half at Sixfields as Town totally nullified their Championship-winning visitors, whilst also carrying an occasional threat on the counter-attack.
While Cobblers stuck with the same XI for the second half, Coventry rang the changes and they finally threatened Northampton’s goal eight minutes after the break when Frank Onyeka’s shot deflected narrowly wide.
Jon Guthrie headed a corner over before Hogg changed his entire XI midway through the second half, which meant an opportunity for trialist Rooney at centre-back, as well as youth team quartet Mateo Moon-Arnaez, Bobby Ashton, George Daldy and Filip Opiela.
Inevitably, Coventry were even more dominant in the final 20 minutes, particularly when Conor McCarthy limped off with injury just eight minutes after coming on, forcing Town to finish the game a man light.
Norman Bassette had three half chances in the closing stages, twice denied by Ross Fitzsimons and also heading wide, while Rooney produced an excellent clearance to prevent a tap-in as Cobblers deservedly earned themselves a draw.
Cobblers: Jeacock (Fitzsimons 68), Wormleighton (Opiela 68), Moore (Dyche 68), Guthrie © (McCarthy 68), Maxwell (Ashton 68), Campbell (Moon-Arnaez 68), Fornah (Rooney 68), Briggs (Ward 68), Saunders (Swyer 68), Hoskins (Dobson 68), List (Opiela 68)
Coventry: Wilson, Thomas (Latibeardiere 45), Ewijk (Kesler-Hayden 45), Tchaouna (Sakamoto 45), Bidwell (Dasilva 45), Eccles (Andrews 45), Torp (Rodrigues 63), Grimes © (Onyeka 45), Perry (Kitching 45), Mason-Clark (Markelo 45), Simms (Bassette 63)
Subs not used: Dovin, Meredith, Batanwi, Varney
Referee: Andy Woolmer
Attendance: 5,060 (3,041 Coventry fans)