Nightmare start hands defeat to Town

Burton Albion 3-2 Northampton Town
Saturday, August 29th 2009
League Two

A tight knit defence, the key to the positive side of the season so far for the Cobblers, was smashed aside in a little over ten minutes this afternoon as the travelling support had a real shock at the Pirelli Stadium, Burton. That defence, who had previously conceded just one goal in the league this season were torn apart by three inside the opening exchanges and despite a late fight back by Stuart Gray’s men the damage had been done and we slipped to defeat number two of this campaign.

Adebayo Akinfenwa was pronounced injured before the game and played no part. If he’s as ‘injured’ as Danny Jackman was a couple of weeks then we should be concerned of a looming move away from Sixfields but the big man is only 50/50 before every game so hopefully we won’t need to read any more into that. Steve Guinan partnered Billy McKay up front for this one with new boy Luke Boden anchoring the midfield and Seb Harris making the squad for the first time.

Ben Marshall almost got us off to the best possible start when he drove wide within the opening minute and how different the game could have been had that flown in. As it was, Burton stunned Town with a three minute goal salvo within ten minutes of kick off.

First, Chris Dunn’s error in delaying a kick out and being closed down by Shaun Harrod led to the Albion forward slotting home the opening goal. Michael Simpson scrambled home the second on just seven minutes and then rifled the ball in off the underside of the cross bar for the third in a disastrous start for Gray’s men.

We couldn’t get into the game after that until five minutes before the break when Steve Guinan could have made it 3-1 when sent clean through on goal but Burton keeper Artur Krysiak kept it out and ensured his side went in three goals to the good at half time.

Gray quickly changed things with Abdul Osman, returning from injury, and Gary Mulligan, making his debut, replacing Paul Rodgers and Craig Hinton. Billy McKay and Guinan went close in the early stages of the second half with Town looking for a similar recovery to last season’s remarkable 4-4 draw at Scunthorpe where we were 4-1 down before salvaging a draw.

But despite having a good go at getting it back for a draw we couldn’t find our way all the way back from the jaws of defeat. Guinan got one back after Boden initial effort had been blocked before a lifeline was handed to the Cobblers with a penalty nine minutes from time after a foul on Mulligan. Ryan Gilligan stepped up in Bayo’s place and made it 3-2 but that was the last of our efforts and Burton took home all the points.

After two wins in the last couple of games it was easy to think that the tide was turned but after a horror show of a first half and the transfer window looming large there is still a lot of unanswered questions as we leave the first month of the season behind. `