Reality Check at Northampton.
Morecambe travelled the 185 miles to Northampton Town’s Sixfields Stadium today to face a team currently lying eighth in League Two. Keith Curle’s team have won their last two league games and lost only one of their previous five having drawn the other two. The former Carlisle United Manager and Manchester City legend said the following ahead of today’s clash:
“We’ve done quite well at home but we have got no given right against anybody. Just because Morecambe are near the bottom of the league doesn’t mean they will turn up here to be rolled over. Football doesn’t work like that and we saw here on New Year’s Day that it took us until the 94th minute to break down a stubborn Stevenage team. Morecambe are fighting for their lives, they have an experienced manager and I’m expecting them to be disciplined, organised and hard to break down. We know it won’t be an easy game and I’m expecting them to come here and get people behind the ball but they have bought in some good players and they can be a threat on the counter-attack too.”
In previous meetings, Town have a tremendous record against the Shrimps. They have won nine of their previous seventeen fixtures and lost a mere two. Last October, they won 2-4 at the Globe Arena against Jim Bentley’s men and they would be looking to complete a double over the club from Lancashire today. One of the intriguing aspects of today’s clash would be the performance of Vadaine Oliver. Since joining Northampton at the start of this season, he has made a real impact. He scored a hat-trick in his debut and although his goal return has been modest (four in twenty-five appearances), his contribution to the team has been exceptional and he has won numerous Man-of-the-Match awards for his performances. Contrast this with the isolated forward playing up-front virtually alone for Morecambe last year, constantly winning the ball in the air – and constantly finding nobody to lay it off to. You wonder what Vadaine’s record would have been for the Shrimps if he had played for the current Manager. Derek Adams has shaken things up at Morecambe as he said he would when he first took over the management of the club. Today, the four signings he made earlier in the month were all to be found in the first team once again. In their two collective appearances so far, these men have helped the Shrimps to draw at home against a decent Colchester United side and beat a Port Vale team which they made look very ordinary most of the time 2-1 on Tuesday at the Globe. Sitting on the bench today was DA’s fifth signing of the month: 25-year-old Congolese international goalkeeper Christoffer Mafoumbi. The loanee from Blackpool was born in France and has played in places as diverse as Bulgaria and South Africa as well as his home country. He was signed during the week as cover for first choice Mark Halstead and will stay with the Shrimps until at least the end of the season. Meanwhile, there was no place again for several individuals who were regulars in Jim Bentley’s teams. Lewis Allesandra has basically not featured during the Adams’ Regime and Kevin Ellison seems to have fallen out of favour during the last couple of weeks as well. Derek has made it plain once again that the revolution he wants to see at Morecambe is far from over and he still has plans for further signings but also a much smaller squad. So something has to give somewhere…
It was a nice, sunny day in Northamptonshire as the game kicked-off. It was a lively start, with both teams winning corners in the first five minutes. Mark Halstead made the first save of the game: Vadaine Oliver played a deft pass to Nicky Adams on the Northampton left and the resultant cross ended-up with a header from Jay Williams which Mark Halstead saved without too much trouble. Jason Slew missed the target after ten minutes and then home goalkeeper David Cornell did well to pluck a George Tanner cross out of the sky when under pressure with seventeen minutes played. The visitors were asking most of the questions at this point. Slew drew a tremendous challenge from Charlie Goode at the cost of a corner after eighteen minutes and four minutes later, Cornell was faced to save at full stretch to his left to keep out a powerful strike by Tanner. The Town keeper then did well again to get down low keep out an effort by Cole Stockton after the Morecambe centre forward had been well-found by Adam Phillips. But it all went pear-shaped after 27 minutes. Sam Lavelle conceded a corner; Ryan Watson took it and Paul Anderson re-directed the ball into the visitors’ penalty area from some distance to see it evade everyone and end up in the back of the Shrimps’ net. Morecambe went up the other end and almost straight away, a cross-come-shot was deflected towards the back post only for Sam Hoskins to be in the right place at the right time to clear away the danger. Steven Old was injured a while after this and – after treatment on the pitch – the markedly improved central defender had to be replaced with less than forty minutes on the clock. Three minutes later, the visitors had a golden chance to equalise: Toumani Diagouraga found the ball at his feet courtesy of Phillips when he was just ten yards out but scorer Anderson again put in a telling challenge and the chance was gone. The Northampton man was instrumental again as Town increased their lead during injury time: he seemed to have scored again but it seems that team-mate Ryan Watson got the decisive touch to a low shot.
So the Shrimps trudged back to the Dressing Rooms two-nil in arrears but having given a decent account of themselves so far.
Just ten minutes of the second period had elapsed when Town went even further ahead though. That man Oliver won the ball in the air and Nicky Adams despatched his knock-down past Halstead with a crisp finish into the top corner of the goal. The visitors were still playing some positive stuff though and got what they deserved when Phillips scored his second goal for the club from close-in after 64 minutes. But any hopes that they might mount a fight-back were soon to be disappointed. Northampton were denied a fourth goal after 72 minutes only by a superb save by Halstead from Adams’ dangerous cross and Chris Lines’ follow-up effort was blocked. But Lines wasn’t going to fluff his for much longer: a cross fell perfectly for him to volley it past a helpless visiting goalkeeper just six minutes later. Halstead earned his corn during the rest of the game with three further good saves from substitute Matt Warburton, Hoskins and Lines.
So at the end of the game, this was a bit of a thrashing for the new-look Shrimps. Worse still, nearest rivals Stevenage pulled-off an astonishing nil-four victory at Cambridge not too many miles away. It put Borough back in front of the Shrimps in the table and improved their goal difference to a whole plus fourteen in comparison to Derek Adams’ men. The Shrimps thus find themselves propping-up the whole of the EFL once again this evening. Under DA’s stewardship so far, the team has certainly played better at home than was the case before he arrived. But if they don’t similarly improve their performances on the road, they will find themselves far from being out of the woods as the season gets relentlessly older…
Northampton Town: 1 David Cornell; 16 Scott Wharton; 5 Charlie Goode(C); 6 Jordan Turnbull; 7 Sam Hoskins; 14 Chris Lines; 8 Ryan Watson; 10 Nicky Adams (3 Joe Martin 77’); 44 Paul Anderson (23 Michael Harriman 69’); 11 Jay Williams; 19 Vadaine Oliver (20 Matt Warburton 70’).
Subs not used: 12 Scott Pollock; 2 Reece Hall-Johnson; 22 Morgan Roberts.
Morecambe: 21 Mark Halstead; 30 Ryan Cooney; 27 George Tanner; 5 Steven Old (12 Ritchie Sutton 37’); 16 Sam Lavelle (C); 31 Adam Phillips; 4 Alex Kenyon (10 A-Jay Leitch-Smith 65’); 32 Toumani Diagouraga; 19 Carlos Mendes-Gomes; 9 Cole Stockton; 29 Jordan Slew.
Subs not used: 37 Christoffer Mafoumbi; 3 Luke Conlan; 14 Tom Brewitt; 7 John O’Sullivan.
Ref: Graham Salisbury.
4761 (105).
