Page over the moon after Cobblers bounce back in style

Cobblers boss Rob Page took great pleasure in witnessing his side bounce back to form with a resounding 4-0 victory over Southend United on Saturday.
PERFECT RESPONSE: Rob Page's side bounced back from back-to-back defeats in style. Picture: Sharon LuceyPERFECT RESPONSE: Rob Page's side bounced back from back-to-back defeats in style. Picture: Sharon Lucey
PERFECT RESPONSE: Rob Page's side bounced back from back-to-back defeats in style. Picture: Sharon Lucey

After back-to-back victories, one of which ended their 31-game unbeaten run, the Cobblers responded in the best way possible when routing Phil Brown’s Southend thanks to a dominant second-half display.

Goalless at the break, Northampton came out all guns blazing as goals from John-Joe O’Toole, Alex Revell, Matty Taylor and Paul Anderson took them up to fifth in Sky Bet League One.

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Page said afterwards: “I thought the conditions played a big factor today with the wind, similar to the Wimbledon game, but we addressed it at half-time and knew it would get easier and what also makes it is when you go 2-0 up inside six minutes of the second-half.

“The Man United game for us was a bonus but having said that, we were disappointed because of the manner of the goals we conceded and that says a lot about the group we have.

“We were also disappointed last week at Chesterfield where again they didn’t have to work too hard so it was important to put that right today and by scoring four and keeping a clean sheet, I think we’ve answered that.”

The swirling wind made life tough for both sides at Sixfields but Town adjusted well after half-time and once they went in front, there was only one winner.

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Page added: “We couldn’t get the ball down and play with the wind and having watched Southend, there’s not many teams beat Millwall like they did and we knew we had to do the dogged side of it today, the not so nice side of the game.

“They were hooking balls into the corners and playing long and we knew we had to put our tin hats on in many respects.

“Once we had the wind with us second-half, we could play a little bit more and get the ball down and thankfully we did and we created opportunities.

“We addressed it at half-time to get on the ball and get more bodies forward, and then we went on to create opportunities.”

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The decision to award Northampton a penalty and send off Southend’s Jason Demetriou three minutes after the home side’s opening goal was perhaps the game’s key moment, and Page felt the decision was correct.

He continued: “It was the right decision, definitely the right decision. Ando’s through, he’s the last man and he’s going to score so of course it’s a red card and a penalty.”