Following a desperately poor month of league form in November, the Christmas period began with the F.A. Cup distracting us from four defeats without a goal in League One. As the month went on though, Stuart Gray managed to turn things around as we narrowly missed out on a massive win at the City Ground.
The month began as the previous one had ended, with a home game with Walsall. In the final league game of November, the Saddlers claimed a 2-0 win at Sixfields but this time, in the F.A. Cup Second Round, had to settle for a replay. Tommy Mooney gave the visitors a fourth minute lead but Andy Kirk struck just a few minutes later to take the tie back to The Bescot Stadium.
Back in the league and it was five defeats in a row as we travelled to Swansea on a Tuesday night. Totally outplayed and outclassed, we folded in the first half as Jason Scotland and Darren Pratley had the Swans 2-0 up in twenty minutes. Scotland added a second half penalty to seal it and we had now lost five games in a row in League one without registering a goal.
With Stuart Gray desperate for a turn around, Carlisle United came to town on good form. Marc Bridge-Wilkinson gave them an expected lead but Jason Crowe hit back with our first goal in six games just a couple of minutes later. Joe Garner looked to have won it for the Cumbrians in the second half but Bradley Johnson scored in stoppage time to earn a much needed point.
With the league slide halted, it was time for the cup replay and after an even game at Walsall, we were edged out by a penalty from Michael Ricketts and our interest in cup competitions were over for another season.
The following weekend and we were off to the City Ground to take on Colin Calderwood’s Nottingham Forest. Lewis McGugan put Calderwood’s side in front but from then on we slowly pushed them back. On 59 minutes, Poul Hubertz gave us a well deserved equaliser and five minutes later Daniel Jones sent the thousands of travelling fans wild with a bullet of a goal from distance. It looked like we could hold on for a famous win but deep into injury time Forest won a corner and Junior Agogo pounced to head home a late, late equaliser.
The Forest draw would turn out to be somewhat of a positive step for the club though and the following weekend Bournemouth were on the end of the backlash. Loan man Dean Bowditch gave us the lead and after Brett Pitman had hit a quick fire leveller, we stormed to our first win in eight league games. Jason Crowe, Daniel Jones and Bradley Johnson were on target as the Cobblers recorded a 4-1 win.
Boxing Day saw a trip to Doncaster end in disappointment as the home side eased past us 2-0 thanks to strikes from Mark McCammon and Adam Lockwood in the first half.
But the final game of 2007 would see us bounce back again as we won at Huddersfield Town’s Galpharm Stadium for the first time. Andy Booth scored on the stroke of half time to give Huddersfield the lead but goals from Poul Hubertz and Jason Crowe turned things around in the final fifteen minutes and the year ended on a high.
There was still work to be done in 2008 to stave off the fear of relegation though and Stuart Gray would need to use all his usual know how in the transfer window to take us up to the next level.
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