A goal in either half from Andy Williams and Daniel Powell gave Northampton Town their fourth win in 5 games at home to Crewe Alexandra yesterday afternoon, the hosts jumping the visitors in the process.
Manager David Artell made 1 change from Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat at home to Mansfield Town with Oliver Finney coming into the team for his first Football League start after impressing in mid-week with James Jones missing out due to injury. One bonus was the return of Eddie Nolan who returned to the bench after his injury that had kept him out of first team action since the start of September.
The opening chance of the game came in the 6th minute with Williams’ cross headed straight at Garratt before the hosts would take the lead 12 minutes later. Kevin van Veen intercepted Finney’s square-pass with the Dutch forward beating George Ray’s sliding challenge, rounding Garratt before squaring the ball to Williams whose effort dribbled over the line despite the efforts of Perry Ng getting back. The hosts also hit the bar 7 minutes before the break after Shaun McWilliams cut in from the left with his curler beating Garratt.
After a double-change at the break which saw Nolan and Chris Porter replace Corey Whelan and Jordan Bowery, it was full debutant Finney who had the Alex’s first meaningful effort 8 minutes after the break with a shot that was well held by David Cornell before they also hit the post through John-Joe O’Toole’s header before substitute Powell added the second 9 minutes from time, 4 minutes after coming on for Williams. Finney was dispossessed by Powell who shot past Garratt from the edge of the area across the keeper.
The Alex host Carlisle United in the FA Cup next Saturday.
What have we learnt from this game?
Nothing that we didn’t already know if I’m being honest. Another display where we gave the ball away far too easily and didn’t do enough to get it back with one of the worst surfaces the official account has ever seen at this level, pretty convinced that the Alex official account is a parody one on match days, because the pitch was one of the best surfaces that I’ve seen and is nothing compared to some of the pitches we see over the Xmas/New Year period in particular.
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