Northampton Town 1-1 Hartlepool United

The Cobblers were denied all three points at Sixfields yesterday as Hartlepool struck on the brink of half time to take home a share of the spoils in a disappointing afternoon of football.

Stuart Gray began with new faces in the starting line-up as Giles Coke made his first start for the first team after a lengthy spell out injured while Mark Little and Jonathon Hayes both made their debuts after joining on loan from Wolves and Leicester respectively this week. Daniel Jones returned from suspension, replacing Andy Holt.

Hayes had a chance to mark his debut with a goal early on but his shot at the far post went wide of the mark. The Cobblers did have the lead on fifteen minutes, though, following a corner, as Liam Dolman pounced on an Andy Kirk knock down to fire home his first senior goal.

David Foley twice went close to equalising for the visitors but his first shot went wide and his second was saved well by Mark Bunn. After a poor first half, they did have a leveller though as Ben Clark found space to strike past Bunn from twelve yards out with just seconds of the half to go.

Mark Hughes, dropped to the bench from the start of the game, replaced goal scorer Dolman at half time after Dolman had suffered a dead leg when celebrating his goal!

Danny Jackman had the best of the efforts in a dismal opening to the second half but his shot was deflected wide before Ian Henderson and Ryan Gilligan came on for Andy Kirk and Jonathon Hayes.

Ian Moore came close for Hartlepool with a cross shot that rattled the far post before Ian Henderson missed a glorious chance to turn the game in our favour. After neat build up play involving Mark Little and Dean Bowditch, Henderson looked certain to score after finding space but shot over the bar.

At the other end, Moore missed an equally good chance but wasted it by side footing wide of the mark.

But despite another late Henderson chance, the Cobblers had to settle for a point at Sixfields and now face a trip to Gillingham next Saturday as we look for our first win in 2008.