Port Vale 2-2 Northampton Town

The Cobblers lost a two goal lead this afternoon as relegated Port Vale grabbed a point to send us out of the top ten of the league table.

There’s always a sense of extra excitement for an away day when it’s a new ground you’re visiting. Vale Park had passed me by on a few occasions over the years with the games falling in midweek or, as in the case of the ill-fated 3-2 collapse in 2003, down to a London Marathon run.

So it was a good feeling to be on the way to Stoke-on-Trent for the final away game of the season and nice to be in a relaxed mood that nothing could possibly go too wrong with nothing to play for and nothing at stake. The temptation of the top ten loomed though and we were looking at seeing the first over achieving Cobblers side for many a year.

I jumped on the train at 9:15; a relatively late wake up compared to some journeys, and decided to treat myself with it being payday the day before so chose the £10 upgrade to First Class for the first time!

The plan was to meet Tim and Debs at Coventry station as they had kindly offered a lift from, and back, there. I looked forward to seeing the Sixfields Boys flag that Tim had been glorifying since its purchase at the start of the season. This was to be the flags’ first airing.

Meeting up with Mr and Mrs Wazza and Dad in the Trust Travel pub stop location of Stone, we spent a good hour and half pondering the day and the season gone by before making the short hop to Vale Park, narrowly missing an angry Stokeonian on a roundabout after we lost the buses we were following!

We got there just in time for kick off and there were no surprises in Stuart Gray’s line-up with Poul Hubertz again pushed wide and Adebayo Akinfenwa alone up front.

Danny Glover had the first effort on goal for the home side just after the ten minute mark with a dipping shot just wide while at the other end Danny Jackman shot over the bar from long range in the Cobblers’ first attempt.

Poul Hubertz hit a stinging volley just over the bar but the Cobblers were soon in front after a good move involving Jason Crowe and Adebayo Akinfenwa. The ball was pushed on to Ryan Gilligan who shot the ball home from just inside the area for his second goal in two games.

The vast travelling support, taking advantage of the cheap tickets, had barely sat down again when we managed to get a second. Crowe again helped to set it up as his cross evaded everyone except the onrushing Andy Holt at the back post and the midfielder got the ball first to head the ball home at the far post.

Port Vale came back into the game though and very nearly had an immediate response. Danny Whitaker was sent clear on goal, rounded Mark Bunn and shot towards goal ut Gabor Gyepes was on hand to deflect the ball wide.

But moments later and they had halved the deficit. After a scramble in the goal mouth, former Cobbler Marc Richards applied a finishing touch and made it 2-1. Richards then went so close to levelling the scores with a header but the crossbar came to our rescue as the half neared its conclusion.

The Cobblers needed the half time whistle to settle down again but minutes after the break the home side had the equaliser. Danny Glover was set up by Richards and fired the ball past Bunn at his near post to complete the fight back.

The game then became open and either side could have gone on to win it. Giles Coke came right into the game for the Cobblers and hit a volley just wide as he began to make his mark on the game.

Coke made a couple of good breaks from midfield and almost gave us the lead again with just over ten minutes to go, running through the Vale defence before shooting low left footed but Vale keeper Chris Martin got a vital touch to the ball.

In stoppage time, a cross from Daniel Jones on the left hand side narrowly missed the head of Akinfenwa as the big front man got a slight touch on the ball but not enough to trouble Martin or the goal

So the game ended all square as the Cobblers let a two goal lead slip. We now know that we can still finish as high as 8th place with a win over Tranmere Rovers in the last game of the season next week whilst the lowest we can finish is 12th.