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Cobblers is a Swear-Word, Right?
At the weekend, Northampton fans must have thought they’d finally turned the corner after their poor start to the season.
Jacob Blyth slotted the ball away after seven minutes, and later slotted another chance just wide. His strike partner, Clive Platt, blasted against the crossbar with a shot which was then unlucky not to cannon in off the goalkeeper’s back, and the Cobblers tried to seal only their second win of the season.
Exeter equalised when a corner dropped low into the six-yard box (particularly disappointing given Northampton’s physical power) and Platt was denied in a one on one after racing onto a through-ball. John O’Flynn raced behind the Northampton defence to head in a cross before challengers could catch up with him, giving Exeter, credited with only two shots on target by the BBC, a 2-1 win.
After the match Aidy Boothroyd was upbeat, insisting that his side were playing well without getting their rewards. The stats seem to support the claim, with the BBC recording the Cobblers having 17 shots to Exeter’s seven, but only five on target to two. It’s common for a manager to claim his keeper had nothing to do apart from the two or three times he picked the ball out of the net, but not quite as common for it to be literally true.
So why have Northampton picked up only four points from 21?
There’s the possibility that the loss of Clarke Carlisle and ‘Beast Mode’ centre forward Adebayo Akinfenwa has meant less physical and mental steel, or the more over-arching theory that Northampton’s physical style has been figured out, as Boothroyd’s Watford side were after a few successful years. Target-man Clive Platt has said that the team are ‘nervy’, while a few weeks ago Roy O’Donovan cited the number of new signings as the reason for the slow start, with a lack of understanding between players resulting in basic mistakes. Judging by the highlights and stats from the weekend, a big result or two shouldn’t be far away.
Hartlepool Win a Game…
Northampton’s presence down at the bottom of League Two just a few months after reaching the play-off final is probably a sign that the tables still haven’t fully taken shape yet. But that isn’t much comfort to the players and fans of Hartlepool United, fresh from one relegation and thanks to a record of one goal and two points from seven games, fearful of another. Manager Colin Cooper – a new appointment during the summer and therefore not as driven to pessimism as most fans – has drawn attention to the attacking creativity shown in patches, and in interviews has generally acted as a bright ray of sunshine in a disused former mine.
In what could be classed as a relegation six-pointer against Accrington, Pools began brightly, with Andy Monkhouse heading a pinpoint cross just wide after 25 seconds. Some decent attacking play was met with distrust from the crowd, and then wild relief bordering on confusion when two chances were tucked away to give Hartlepool a well-deserved 2-0 lead at half time. The start of the second half built on this, with Pools knocking the ball around with the sort of skill and confidence previous managers John Hughes and Neale Cooper had pledged to build, but for one reason or another had not been able to. But 12 minutes after the break, Accrington’s James Gray pulled a goal back after a quick counter-attack, Accrington grew in confidence, and the last 20 minutes in particular were much nervier than looked likely at the start of the second half.
For Hartlepool this season, massive inconsistency has been a problem, more across different portions of a single game rather than from match to match. Reports suggest that Pools were dominant for sections of the opening game against Rochdale, but mentally collapsed after conceding and were outplayed for the remaining three quarters of the match, resulting in a 3-0 loss. Similarly, at home to Wycombe last week, Pools forced one of the league’s form teams on the back foot for long sections of the first half. But an improved display from the Chairboys early in the second half combined with two impressive finishes from Max Kretzschmar was enough to send the Pools team back into their shells.
Hartlepool are now 4th bottom, eight points off the play-offs and sandwiched between Northampton and Cheltenham, both in the play-offs last season. It’s not an ideal place to be, but in what was always going to be a rebuilding season, teams who more was expected from have started at a similarly slow pace.
…As Do Carlisle
Rising up a division, managerless Carlisle got their first win of the season under Graham Kavanagh, the caretaker manager and former assistant manager – a 1-0 victory over underachieving Sheffield United. Rumours link former boss Paul Simpson with a return to Carlisle, as well as Peter Schmeichel, Michael Owen and more sensibly, former Sheffield United and Swindon boss Danny Wilson.
Carlisle’s results had been very gradually improving, even before Abbott was sacked, so it may be as simple as the promise of changes to come, added to the hard work on the training ground over the past few months have added up to Carlisle’s first league win of the season. Whatever the reason, it’ll have been a relief to break their duck.
Bramall Lane, the home of Sheffield United
Blades Are Still Blunt
The frustration felt by Northampton and Hartlepool will be at the very least equalled by Sheffield United. The weekend’s loss to Carlisle means that the Blades have just four points from seven games, their only win coming against Notts County, who played most of the game with ten men. Watching that opening game, I thought Sheffield United looked fairly decent, but every report I’ve heard from their matches since has suggested they’ve been astonishingly poor. I’m inclined to cut them slack for their performance in the loss to Brentford with the news that their play-maker Kevin McDonald was likely to be sold coming through the day before the game.
The loss of a man that reports suggest new manager David Weir wanted to build his team around will have been a practical problem, as will the additions of Jose Baxter and Florent Cuvelier after the season had started, in addition to the damage done by losing a key player. But picking up one point from 18 is exceptionally poor, especially the result against Carlisle.
If poor results are the result of transfer disruption, Sheffield United will probably have more to fear in January. Recently several places have claimed that gigantic centre half Harry Maguire is being looked at by Manchester United and Chelsea amongst others. It also appears that the club are looking to strengthen the forward line. At the end of the window, Sheffield United had been in talks with free agent Marlon King and apparently plan to bid again for Coventry’s Leon Clarke though Coventry have insisted that Clarke won’t be loaned out in the type of ‘emergency loan’ that are often a transfer in all but name.
The Latest From Coventry
Gary McSheffrey, whose second spell at Coventry hasn’t been anywhere near the success of his first spell, this week became the third and most notable player to have his contract terminated by the club since the close of the transfer window. Meanwhile, several Coventry junior teams have returned to the Alan Higgs Centre, owned by the people who own the stadium, maybe paving the way for some kind of reconciliation. Given that SISU had eight weeks ago told the local Coventry Telegraph that they would have bought land for a new stadium within eight weeks, and have failed to do so, reconciliation may begin to seem more appealing.
On the field, Coventry won yet again at ‘home’, this time 2-1 against Gillingham. Cody McDonald, released by Coventry in the summer, scored Gillingham’s goal. Speaking after the match, Steven Pressley revealed that he let McDonald go because of the lack of an ‘outstanding attribute’, as he had been planning to play with a lone striker and wanted specialist strikers rather than all-rounders like McDonald. It’s an interesting interview, in which Pressley also revealed he was motivated to switch to a 4-4-2 rather than his preferred 4-3-3 by watching Borussia Dortmund in pre-season. Given that much of Coventry’s success has been built around the relationship between Leon Clarke and Callum Wilson, and the possibility that McDonald would have been kept on at the expense of Wilson had the decision to play with a two-man attack been made sooner (eight of 21-year-old Wilson’s nine league goals came this season) it’s interesting to think how different things could have been.
Orient Express Themselves
Although Coventry have rightly won a lot of praise, League One’s success story this season has to be Leyton Orient.
Going into the weekend, Leyton Orient had the Football League’s last 100% record, and were facing Port Vale, the kind of banana skin that unexpected overachievers might be expected to trip up against. Leyton Orient conceded first for the first time this season, before equalising with a dramatic David Mooney volley from a possible offside position. Mooney scored again before Port Vale levelled the scores, then the teams were separated by a dramatic late run from Orient’s Kevin Lisbie to score the winner two minutes from time.
On Tuesday night, Orient were up against bottom of the league Notts County in a match pushed back because of players on international duty. Slightly comically, it was the league’s bottom rather than top team who had the players away. Leyton Orient’s star forward Kevin Lisbie scored a first half brace – the first a placed shot and the second a poacher’s goal just before the break. Dean Cox – whose spilled shot Lisbie had tucked away – struck from range in the second half, before County’s Danny Haynes pulled a goal back. The stats suggest that County weren’t as bad as the score suggests - grabbing a similar number of shots and more possession – but two goals in the last ten minutes made the score 5-1. Leyton Orient are now five points clear of Peterborough and Wolves after seven games, and are both League One’s highest goal scorers and guardians of the division’s tightest defence.
Given the surprise of their start, the obvious comparison is to Tranmere, who started last year’s League One season in similar fashion. But given that the majority of this Orient team were together before the summer, rather than being pulled together as Tranmere were, they should have a more solid mental foundation. The title is probably beyond a club with Leyton Orient’s meagre resources, but the play-offs at least look a very real possibility.
England’s home of entertaining football. Courtesy of Nigel Cox
County-ing The Costs
Even before that heavy defeat, having picked up only one point from six games, it was Notts County’s worst ever start to a season. Gary Liddle, last year’s quadruple player of the season, has said that morale is low and it’s understandable that the players would end up in a psychological tailspin after the way the season’s started.
The first win in the wekend’s 3-1 defeat to MK Dons was a slightly shambolic goal. Alan Sheehan headed a ball back and wide of goal on a trajectory that was closer to opposing winger Patrick Bamford than the goalkeeper, forcing the keeper out of his nets, only to be lobbed by Luke Chadwick. It’s the kind of sloppy error that comes about when players are too nervous to think properly.
Chris Kiwomya wasn’t a popular permanent appointment to replace Keith Curle, stepping up from youth team manager. His record last season was decent, winning five and drawing seven of 17, but given Curle was removed after a play-off challenge faded, that was more or less what was expected. With Martin Allen and Curle both being sacked midway through the last two seasons, Notts haven’t been a patient club in recent years. At the moment, Kiwomya’s looking a pretty good bet to be the next Football League manager sacked.
Goals, Goals, Goals
As pointed out elsewhere, it’s been a slow start to the Premier League season, goals-wise.
That’s not been the case in League One, with this weekend being a particularly good one, even aside from Leyton Orient’s 3-2 win.
Wolves won 3-2 against Swindon in what reports agree was a dominant but wasteful Swindon performance.
Peterborough continued their strong start to the season with a 3-0 win at Bristol City. Already one up, Britt Assombolonga was hauled to the ground for a penalty, though Lee Tomlin’s effort was tipped wide. Assombolonga blasted a goal at the start of the second half before dribbling through the City defence two minutes from time, then delicately chipping his second of the match and 7th of the season.
Daniel Nardiello scored twice for Rotherham in a 3-2 win against Oldham with the final goal pouncing on a spilled shot in the last minute.
Brentford’s game against Tranmere was probably the most dramatic. Brentford were 2-0 up before two Tranmere loanees pulled the scores level. Clayton Donaldson headed into the corner, his second of the game, to give Brentford a 3-2 lead, and Tranmere youth product Cole Stockton gave his side a stoppage time equaliser. But Adam Dugdale, the scorer of Tranmere’s earlier equaliser, handled in the box to give Brentford a 92nd minute penalty, which was tucked away.
The high number of goals even seems to extend to youth teams. MK Dons U18s, fresh off a 5-3 win over Southend, defeated Dagenham 8-5, almost outscoring the Premier League in their games alone!
So there you have it – if you want a free-flowing back and forth game, don’t go to a Premier League match, head to your nearest League One ground. Or MK Dons’ youth team.
