Louis Appere’s 23rd-minute goal was enough for Northampton Town to defeat Crewe Alexandra, who had on-loan Brighton & Hove Albion keeper James Beadle to thank for the small nature of the defeat, at Sixfields yesterday.
Manager Lee Bell made 3 changes from Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat at Stevenage as Charlie Colkett, Lachlan Brook and Courtney-Baker Richardson (the latter for his first start since October) all came into the team for Elliott Nevitt, who dropped down to the bench (which also contained youngsters Matus Holicek and Sean Lawton) and injured duo Ryan Finnigan and Tariq Uwakwe. Former Alex defender Jon Guthrie captained the hosts in their defence.
The opening chance fell to the hosts in the 20th minute with Sam Hoskins hitting the bar before Beadle made a save from Jack Sowerby’s mishit cross a minute later. They would take the lead in the 24th minute as Appere would get on the end of a cross from Hoskins following a mistake from Alex captain Luke Offord before the Alex keeper would make a great double save to deny William Hondermarck twice in quick succession.
The second half of the game would see the same pattern to the game with Beadle taking on the Cobblers team on his own, again denying Sowerby from range before Holicek would see his Football League debut with 13 minutes on the clock.
The next games for the Alex see them travelling to Gillingham on Tuesday before an away trip to Doncaster Rovers on Saturday 1st April.
What can we take out of this game?
It was another game that saw very little attacking output, this time the problem was a lack of balance in the team (particularly in midfield) due to the number of attack-minded players in the team. Colkett was the most defensive player in the midfield 5 which should have been better with either Conor Thomas or Regan Griffiths in the middle of the park to allow Colkett to have a partner in the deeper midfield roles.