Monday, September 22, 2008

Huddersfield Town 3-2 Northampton Town

The Cobblers were beaten at Huddersfield yesterday as Liam Davis’ late consolation wasn’t enough to prevent a disappointing afternoon at the Galpharm Stadium.

Cobblers boss Stuart Gray brought back Jason Crowe after suspension and Mark Hughes replaced the injured Chris Doig in defence. Adebayo Akinfenwa also returned to the starting line-up in place of Ryan Gilligan.

The first chance of the game fell to Karl Hawley. After good work from Jason Crowe down the right hand side, Hawley met the ball with a good header but the ball crashed against the crossbar as the front man looked to make it two goals in a week. Shortly after, Jonathon Worthington flashed the home side’s first chance over the bar.

At the other end, Hawley had a header cleared off the line and a second one tipped over the bar by Matt Glennon in the Huddersfield goal. But the Cobblers early pressure was rewarded on twenty five minutes. Luke Guttridge received the ball from Danny Jackman and his cross was diverted into his own net by Jim Goodwin.

We were denied a penalty shortly after the goal after Hawley has appeared to be tripped in the area and the frustration grew soon afterwards as the home side had an equaliser. Liam Dickinson caused havoc in the Cobblers defence and Andy Booth scored from close range to continue his good run of form against us.

The sides went in at half-time level despite a late effort from Abdul Osman but the game would soon turn against us after the break.

After Hawley had a shot diverted wide, Huddersfield had the lead for the first time in the game. Dickinson was again the architect and he played in Michael Flynn who finished well past Chris Dunn in the Cobblers goal.

Liam Davis came off the bench and immediately had a shot saved by Glennon but the game was over with around ten minutes to go as Flynn scored with a long range effort that snuck under the body of Chris Dunn. As we looked to get back into the game, Leon Constantine, a substitute for Adebayo Akinfenwa, lobbed the ball just over.

Davis did get on the score sheet with a good header from a Ryan Gilligan cross but it was too little too late and The Cobblers had let another lead slip on our travels. We now regroup before we travel to Sunderland on Tuesday night in the Carling Cup.

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