Morecambe 2-4 Northampton Town
League Two
Saturday, October 24th 2009
It’s getting quite entertaining following the fortunes of the Cobblers under Ian Sampson. We thought the incredible opening to Sammo’s tenure with back to back fight backs to draw 2-2 was settling down with a single goal win over Lincoln last week but this afternoon we once again turned a game around, this time coming out on top after a thrilling second half at Morecambe.
Without Courtney Herbert once again, Sammo handed Adebayo Akinfenwa a start up front with Steve Guinan. Guinan had been the only scorer against Lincoln and he was off the mark early in this one as the Cobblers took the lead from his delightful curling effort from long range that beat Ben Smith in the home goal.
We had started brightly and had a good spell following the goal with Luke Guttridge twice coming close and Guinan having a volley saved well by Smith. With so much possession and chances it was somewhat inevitable that Morecambe would equalise and they duly did so from the spot with twenty five minutes gone.
Mark Duffy went down under a challenge from Andy Holt and Phil Jevons stepped up to send Chris Dunn the wrong way. The game calmed down for a while but the Shrimps took advantage of our slip and took the lead before half time as Ian Craney crossed for Stewart Drummond to head home and undo all of the Cobblers’ early promise.
But once again a half time resurgence spurred us into life. Akinfenwa shot wide in our first real effort of the second half before Andy Holt’s free kick broke to Guttridge who fired in a good strike only for Smith to pull off another good save. The tide was turning as Ben Marshall came off the bench to replace John Curtis as we looked for more spark from the middle of the pitch.
John Johnson almost made it 2-2 after being set up by Bayo before we were denied a spot kick when the same player appeared to be kicked inside the area.
The pressure paid off in dramatic style though as Marshall crossed for Holt to volley home with twenty minutes to go and it was well and truly game on. The fighting spirit installed under Sammo can not be questioned and the Cobblers pulled the game back on its head when Johnson started and finished a move that ended in our third goal as he stabbed in from close range.
With the game swinging from end to end, it was always looking like a sixth goal would come and luckily it came in the right end as Bayo turned his man and scored his second in three games to seal a terrific three points for the Cobblers.
The win takes us up to fifteenth and we’re still six points from a place in the top six but it’s real signs of life from a season that looked buried back in August. Slowly but surely, Ian Sampson is proving to be the right man for this immense task of reigniting the spark of Northampton Town.
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