Two first-half goals from Daniel Powell and John-Joe O’Toole in a 5 minute period were enough for Northampton Town to see off an underwhelming Crewe Alexandra in South Cheshire yesterday afternoon.
Manager David Artell made an enforced change from last Saturday’s home defeat to Exeter City with Jamie Sterry making his first appearance since returning on loan from Newcastle United at left-back, in for the injured Harry Pickering. With Pickering, fellow left-back Aaron Taylor-Sinclair and Nicky Hunt all out with knocks, first-year professional Travis Johnson made the first-team squad for the first time as the defensive cover from the bench.
The opening chance of the game came in the 10th minute with Jordan Bowery skewing the ball wide following a nice move that involved Charlie Kirk and Callum Ainley before the first proper chance for the visitors saw Alex skipper George Ray clear off the line from O’Toole’s effort after another mix-up between himself and Ben Garratt.
They took the lead on 28 minutes with Bowery flicking on an inswinging corner with Powell heading into the corner of Garratt’s goal before the second was added minutes later with Powell’s low cross turned in by O’Toole at the near post.
The second half started with the Alex on the front foot with Sterry shooting over from distance before David Buchanan’s left-footed cross was headed wide by Marvin Sordell for the visitors in a rare attack for Town in the second period which saw Crewe dominate the ball without creating too much.
We travel to Tranmere Rovers on Friday night and to Cambridge United on the following Tuesday before hosting Crawley Town on Saturday 16th.
What have we learnt from this game?
It was another frustrating game as far as pushing towards the play-off positions is concerned (I think that we’ll fall short and will finish 10th-12th in the end) but it’s another game where we didn’t match the physically of the opposition team which we will come up against more often than not at this level.
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| 0 | Goal attempts | 0 |
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