Leeds United 1-1 Northampton Town

The Cobblers claimed a fantastic FA Cup draw at Leeds on Friday evening after playing over an hour of the game with ten men.

It’s always strange when you meet someone from nearby your home town when you live over 100 miles away but particularly stranger when you meet someone who lives just down the road, yet supports the same football team as you. Now that may not seem such a co-incidence for Premier League supporting fans but when the team in question is Northampton Town, the weirdness increases!

So I was delighted to hear from another Hampshire based Cobbler ahead of Northampton’s trip to Leeds in the F.A. Cup on Friday night. After a post on the SixfieldsBoys message board, a lad named “Hampshire Cobbler”, or Tom to his friends, got in touch on the private messaging service to see where I was watching the game. Brilliant!

Over the last few years, I’ve converted my housemate, Jamie, to be a Cobbler through trips to Barnet, Bournemouth, Millwall, and of course Sixfields and we’d already chosen our venue to try and catch the rare glimpse of the Cobblers on TV. Annoyingly, had the game been on Sky we could have watched it in the comfort of our home but the Setanta switch meant that it would have to be the pub.

I checked with the pub that the game would be on and the Winston Hotel duly obliged in a very friendly manner to show the game and now there would be three Cobblers fans watching a game...in Southampton! The beautiful game and the F.A. Cup didn’t get much better than that! Now all we needed was an upset and it would be the perfect Friday night out!

While the rest of Southampton partied into Friday night, three Cobblers fans came together in a southern city to watch a cup tie that just a lone Leeds fan on the other side of the pub also cared about. As we took some seats near the big screens, a band began to set up right in front of it! We managed to get through the first half without any disturbances to our game watching but by half-time we were forced to relocate to the smaller screens.

On the pitch, Leon Constantine and Andy Holt seemed to be supporting Scott McGleish in a 4-3-3/4-5-1 formation used well by Stuart Gray in the past. Ryan Gilligan came through his injury worries to start in midfield while Liam Davis made the bench alongside new loan man Nicholas Bignall.

The game started with Leeds on the offensive as expected but nothing more than a couple of long range efforts troubled us. And then, with our first attack of the game, Leon Constantine knocked the ball down for Scott McGleish to scramble home his first goal since rejoining the club to send a small cheer up from a corner of the pub!

That dream start for the Cobblers almost seemed too good to be true and we were right to assume that as Chris Doig hobbled off with his latest injury to be replaced by young Alex Dyer. Leeds began to press more and after a succession of dangerous corners, Paul Telfer fired a shot that was blocked on the line by Danny Jackman.

The evening began turning further and further against us when Giles Coke was booked for a silly second yellow card after a foul on Fabien Delph as the forward was bursting through from the back. Coke had been initially booked in the opening exchanges and he left the field to leave the Cobblers with ten men for the majority of the game.

Just a few minutes after the red card we had a rare attack and Ryan Gilligan was put through by Andy Holt. The midfielder’s shot was blocked by keeper Casper Ankergran and the ball fell to McGleish who tried an audacious lob from thirty yards that only just cleared the bar. Jonathon Howson tested Frank Fielding’s nerves at the other end before Leeds finally drew level.

Mark Hughes was punished for bringing down his man in the area but the replays on the screen showed a completely different story and the run of bad luck for the Cobblers went on. Andy Robinson sent Fielding the wrong way to level the tie and we thought that was the beginning of the end as far as the game was concerned.

Little did we know that we had a fighting ten men on the pitch and from the second the goal went in, we fought for every ball and generally frustrated Leeds and their attempts to find a winner. We got to half-time with a Robinson shot that hit the post the main threat to our goal but it was to be an agonisingly long second half.

The second half began with Leeds hitting the post again. This time Robert Snodgrass turned brilliantly and rifled in a shot that bounced away off Fieldings’ post and you just started to wonder whether it could yet be a night where we escaped. McGleish was replaced by new boy Bignall with ten minutes of the half played just before Ryan Gilligan forced Ankergran to tip his header over the bar.

Leeds continued to push on but with only long range efforts flying in from Robinson and Delph and there were no real clear cut chances for the home side. The Cobblers’ defence held firm and the final ten minutes ticked by. I made the kiss of death comment that Leeds would get a last second free kick on the edge of our area and sure enough they did! Robinson stepped up and the biggest cheer of the night went up as Fielding easily claimed it. Three minutes of stoppage time later and we had been rewarded for a fine display with a replay from what looked like dead and buried circumstances at Elland Road.

Considering we had limited options even before the game, our captain taken off injured, an influential midfielder sent off, down to ten men and away at one of the best sides in the draw, it was a fantastic achievement to come away with a draw and a replay. I, along with my new friends and old, was a proud man as the claret troops embraced at the end of a tiring evening for players and fans alike!

The draw now sets up a replay in ten days or so at Sixfields and the draw for Round Two will be made on Sunday at 1:45pm on ITV1 where the Cobblers and Leeds go into the hat.