Adebayo Akinfenwa once again saved the Cobblers at the weekend with the equaliser against Leeds as we earned a well deserved point against Gary McAllister’s mn. Akinfenwa came off the bench for the second week in a row to snatch a draw and keep the team in the top half of the League One table.
Stuart Gray named an unchanged side from the 1-1 draw at Swindon with Giles Coke making the bench after missing the game at The County Ground. Gabor Gyepes also made his first appearance on the bench since signing on a deal until the end of the season. Former Cobbler Bradley Johnson started for the visitors.
The fist real effort on goal came from Ryan Gilligan fifteen minutes in as he attempted to lob Leeds keeper Casper Ankergren from distance but he got back in time to prvent us taking the early lead.
Mark Bunn saved well from Jermaine Beckford a couple of minutes later before Jonathon Hayes had a shot deflected wide at the other end.
But it was Leeds who found a way through first and it was Bradley Johnson who made the goal. Johnson crossed in for Jonathon Howson to volley into the net past Bunn at the near post.
So it was Leeds who went into the break on top but the Cobblers were showing a lot more invention than they did at Elland Road and looked threatening enough to suggest a fight back.
Ten minutes into the second half, Andy Holt was replaced by Adebayo Akinfenwa and his introduction changed the game for the second week in a row. His first act was to bustle past a group of Leeds defenders and power a shot just wide. Giles Coke then replaced Joe Burnell in midfield.
It was Coke who started the move that led to our deserved equaliser with around twenty minutes to go. Coke found Hayes with a long ball and the on loan midfielder set up Poul Hubertz. Hubertz then laid the ball on to Akinfenwa who scored at the second attempt for his second goal in two games.
Giles Coke went close to putting us in front with a volley before Beckford had a header cleared off the line by Brett Johnson in a nervy ending for both sides but the game ended in a draw and gave us another useful point as we exntend our unbeaten run to five games.
Next up is a trip to Yeovil on Tuesday night as we looked to cement a place in the top half of the table.
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