High winds and red cards lead to stalemate

Northampton Town 0-0 Grimsby Town
League Two
Saturday, November 14th 2009

Treacherous weather conditions and a poor display of football from both sides led to the Cobblers' 0-0 draw with Grimsby Town on Saturday as we were left to try and pick out the positives of at least a clean sheet. Peter Gilbert, making his debut, was sent off in the second half before the visitors were also reduced to ten men in a game that never got going.

There were the obvious changes to the side that went out of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy on Tuesday night with Bay returning up front and Gilbert replacing the unfortunate Paul Rodgers at left back. Pat Kanyuka was fit enough to fill in for Dean Beckwith and would have been happy with his contribution at least to a much needed clean sheet.

The difficult conditions made it hard for chances to be created and it was Steve Guinan who had the best of the early opportunities when he was set up by Akinfenwa but the former Hereford man shot wide.

Bayo himself had a couple of half chances as the game wore on, heading wide from a Gilligan cross and then only finding visiting keeper Nick Colgan with a decent effort later on. The Cobblers were at least having the best of it and Andy Holt forced Colgan into a decent stop with a far post header.

The second half will only be remembered for the sendings off. Danny North was put clear on goal and Gilbert, having only signed on Friday night, was sent packing for denying him a goal scoring opportunity. The deficit in numbers forced Sammo into replacing Akinfenwa for Rodgers and bringing on Liam Davis in place of John Curtis.

Despite the ten men we were still trying to find a way through with Davis creating a good chance before shooting into the side netting and John Johnson's header testing Colgan and it wasn't long before the numbers were evened up. Grimsby's Rob Atkinson was shown the second red card of the afternoon after bringing down Davis and the sides were level.

But that didn't make a lot of difference and the Cobblers had to settle for a point despite a late penalty appeal being turned down. A disappointing start to a run of back to back home games and there's now a little bit of pressure on the game with Crewe next weekend as we go in search of a much needed three points to get this season back on track once more.