Relief all round as Cobblers WIN!

Northampton Town 3-1 Rotherham United
League Two
Tuesday, September 29th 2009

The doom and gloom may be only temporarily lifted but Sixfields is finally cheering this evening with a, quite surprising if truth be told, success over in form Rotherham United. Ronnie Moore, leading the Millers properly once again, brought his newest set of Millers to the home of football and left with nothing as a young Town forward made his mark for the first time.

The man in question, Courtney Herbert, will never forget this evening for it was his strike just inside the second half that made it 2-0 and for the local lad signed from Long Buckby last week it was a dream come true on his first start for the Cobblers.

By then, Ryan Gilligan had already stooped to give Town the lead and leap to the top of the club’s scoring charts for this season, smashing home a half volley in the tenth minute. That seemed to give us confidence and Herbert broke before being denied by a defender on the half hour mark but it was the youngster’s pace causing all the problems.

Rotherham could have equalised before the break but John Curtis headed away a free kick from Nicky Law to keep us in front. Then it was time for Herbert to shine.
Herbert grabbed back possession in midfield and played a neat one-two with Steve Guinan before looping a shot over the Millers’ keeper Andy Warrington. The ball struck the under side of the cross bar and bounced down just behind the line and Herbert capped his first start with a fine goal.

With chances still at a premium despite the 2-0 lead, the three goal margin was handed to the Cobblers on a plate by Rotherham’s Ian Sharps who could only divert his header into his own net following a powerful volley from Luke Guttridge. 3-0, and a crazy notion that a game was just about wrapped up with half an hour to play!
Adam Le Fondre was causing most of the problems for the visitors and he came close once before grabbing a goal back. Andy Holt brought him down and was booked despite the offence seemingly occurring outside the area. Le Fondre picked himself up to slot home the consolation but it was nothing more and Sammo finally had his first win in charge.

It may yet be a result that the Town legend needs to kick start his campaign for taking the job full time, with the pressure on tonight for him to achieve that victory. Bradford at home on Saturday is another massive test and it’ll be a tough decision for Mr Cardoza to make should we get a repeat of this relief of a result!