Northampton Game - The Verdict!
By: Bill Osborne
Date: 10/10/2004
THE Grimsby Telegraph aptly summed up the Northampton game with; 'Northampton could have little complaints about the result after failing to seriously test Tony Williams in the Grimsby goal. All too often Northampton's attacking moves broke down in the final third.'
But how did the fans see it?
SidNTFCU was not too happy:
Well, that was good...... not
Don't know what Grimsby fans made of it - but to be honest if you don't have a shot then you don't deserve it. Mariners had two, hit the bar and scored.
A boring 0-0 looked on the cards - and on balance would have been a fair result in both sides view, if Gordon hadn't nipped round the back - but we are so indecisive it's untrue.
But Ipswin, on the other hand, was reminiscent of the "never mind the quality, feel the width!" days.
A belting win! I don't know how we played. In fact I don't care whether we deserved it or not, we won it against one of Division Two's better sides, who could be regarded as a test against which we can really judge progress. Excellent!
From the management side
Assistant manager Graham Rodger on Mariners Net said it wasn't the Mariners' best performance of the season, but it was a fantastic result. "I think we've played a lot better this season, but I think it is a difficult place to come to. I think that the lads have shown a lot of resilience. It has been a bit of a scrappy game for us but it is a fantastic three points".
"I thought that Terrell and Justin were absolutely colossus tonight. Jason Crowe doesn't get the credit that he deserves - his energy and work rate was fantastic."
"We had an idea of how they were going to go. We needed to be more solid through the middle of the team. Stacy came in to make a three in there. You know what Stacy's going to give you with his energy and endeavour - that rubs off on the players around him.
"We've probably just about got it right tonight."
Colin Calderwood told the Northampton official site that he was obviously disappointed with his sides first home defeat of the season, but he paid tribute to Grimsby Town. "It was a disappointing result. We are looking to move forward and start collecting points and this is obviously a set back. It was a very hard fought game and very little between the teams and I thought Grimsby were a more than decent side".
"We had seen them play on video and it was no surprise to me that the game was as tight as it was. When it's like that you don't want to concede a goal, especially not late on and especially not in the manner we did. It was a poor piece of defending from us and they took full advantage."
"We did not take enough responsibility throughout the game and especially so for their goal. We didn't really work their keeper enough to claim we should have had 3 points, but Grimsby played well and we have to give them credit for that."
But we leave the final word to our match assessor scottmcgarveysgreat.
The Cobblers suffered the town disease - lots of decent approach play but no end product, with shooting of Poutonesque class. Town were solid, not as spectacularly devastating or pretty as at Rushden but effective/ professional - I would think that Slade would see it as one of their best performances of the season.
Williams - no shots to save but made the right choices.....eventually. Still not convinced by him.
Crowe - man of the match for me - brilliant tackling, quick to recover position and to cover others mistakes. Some super forward runs - looked the superior player his pedigree suggests.
Forbes - only just behind Crowe - some marvellous interceptions, quick, cool - a division above this level.
Whittle - awful passing but stuck to Sabin like glue - cobblers fans were mighty impressed although I prefer the more aesthetically pleasing qualities of Crowe, Forbes and Gordon.
Gordon - as good as Forbes a real class act - the long range raking passes were a joy. Made 1 or 2 mistakes, but sometimes suffers coz the other players aren't good enough to read his play. like Forbes quick, intelligent and some masterful interceptions - wish we'd had him in div 1/championship.
Stace - not brilliant but better than I've seen him this year seems like he might be getting used to Slade/system and settling down to his normal standard.
Fleming - not a huge fan of his but again I was impressed and thought, unfortunately, he was more effective than Stake although I don't think he passes as safely as Stace.
Pinault - bit quiet I thought but I can see why fans rave about him, for a skilful player he tries really hard.
Parkinson - worst I've seen him and was surprised it was Reddy and not him who was subbed. Looked as though he couldn't get used to the system. Caught offside several times. Perhaps he did some good defensive work that my uncultured eye didn't pick up.
Reddy - looked a lot better although kept slipping over and made some wrong choices. Looked good when running at people and can see some potential with him playing off Cramb. Were quite close to each other at times which is good for a forward pairing.
Cramb- can't see why others were criticising may not be 100% fit but made a big difference, held ball up well and has nice touch at times, he's obviously a decent finisher - may well be the piece we all know we've been missing. Tried hard.
Sir Stan - came on and gave us something different -one run and shot were superb but his passing was awful; can't judge too much tonight as he was obviously unwell but somehow he has to improve his decision making.
Slade - lovely to see him come over at the end - thought he made the wrong decision taking Reddy off - they really pressurised us after that, inviting them to come on to us. Think we may have got lucky tonight, but it's about time we had some good fortune. Just maybe the first signs of the formation/team starting to gel.
Support? Big, noisy and brilliant - well done to all!
Proud to be a mariner!
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