Nottingham Forest 2-2 Northampton Town

The Cobblers were denied victory at the City Ground as Junior Agogo headed home a last minute equaliser to send us home with a point. The fact that we’re disappointed to only get a point out of the game shows how far we pushed one of the league’s best sides away from home and this game could be a turning point for the season.

We’d made the journey up to Northampton on Friday evening and the coach was boarded just after lunchtime on a bitterly cold day. There was a panic on the coach as we pulled over on to the hard shoulder after the coach driver thought he heard something wrong. It turned out to only be the sound of someone going in the toilet and the door slamming though and I must commend Jamie for coming up with the line, “he thought it was a flat tyre but it turned out it was just a slash.”

Andy Holt and Andy Kirk missed the game through injury but Brad Johnson and Jason Crowe returned after missing Tuesday nights’ cup-tie at Walsall through suspension.

Johnson had the first attempt on goal in the opening couple of minutes but his left footed shot drifted wide as the midfielder failed to catch the ball properly on the volley. The Cobblers were otherwise slow in starting the game and Forest quickly got into their rhythm. Kris Commons sent a warning shot to the Cobblers as his long-range effort crashed against Mark Bunn’s crossbar.

But it wasn’t long before they were in front as Lewis McGugan collected the ball and found space enough to fire it into the corner of Bunn’s net. It was all too easy and many worried Town fans looked as if they were expecting a drubbing.

The first half was ruined by ridiculous stewarding in the away end as several Cobblers fans were ejected from the ground for, from what most people around me saw as, standing up! When there’s hundreds of Forest fans doing exactly the same thing just above us in the upper tier of the stand, there’s something wrong when Town fans get treated like hooligans just because we’re the away team. The “Mitchell brothers” stewards only seemed to care about throwing enough people out to get what must be an ejecting bonus!

Jason Crowe shot wide as The Cobblers attempted to get back into the game but the story of the half was that Poul Hubertz was playing a lone role up front and not one of the five men in midfield was supporting his runs and hold up play.

There seemed no way back, even at just 1-0 down and the Cobblers had nothing in way of a goal scoring threat. Gloomy expressions were the orders of the day on the way to the half time toilet break with the usual “what a load of rubbish” and “same old same old” being the murmers of choice. A man in front of us when I got back to the seats asked his young lad,

“Who’s going to get the Cobblers goal then?”

to which he replied,

“no-one.”

Ah, they teach them young how to be a Cobblers fan these days!

The second half promised little as the teams came out but what we got was an incredible response from the players as we completely turned the game around.

Ten minutes in and Hubertz turned and hit a low, curling shot towards goal that home keeper Paul Smith managed to just about push away. Ian Henderson was following up and missed the ball but even if he had put it in he was offside.

The momentum was building and the equaliser came just a few minutes later. Ryan Gilligan did well down the right to win the ball and his cross was majestically met by Hubertz who swooped the ball home to send the travelling army of Cobblers fans into hysteria!

Gilligan was brought off the pitch for Dean Bowditch before the Cobblers had an incredible lead. Daniel Jones found room to shoot on the left and his low shot went under Paul Smith and crept into the net. The Forest fans were silent and the earlier chants of “you stole our manager” was being thrown right back in their faces!

From then on it was a nervy last half an hour of the game but instead of sitting back and allowing Forest back into the game we fought for every ball, pressed them back and got in their faces like I’ve not seen us do for a long, long time. The effort, determination and desire to keep the lead was outstanding and we certainly didn’t deserve the cruel blow with just a minute to go.

Forest substitute Junior Agogo found space at a corner and with a free header, agonisingly undid the Cobblers and salvaged a point for the home side.

To come away from the City Ground with a point and be disappointed is a bit bizarre but hat we can take is real heart from the effort and work rate that has been missing in previous weeks.

We must now take it on to a game that’s arguably even bigger, Bournemouth at home this Friday evening.