That's more like it!

Northampton Town 2-0 Brighton And Hove Albion
Carling Cup First Round
Tuesday, August 10th 2010

After the hammering at Torquay, this was just the tonic for the Cobblers. What better than a win over a higher league side to regenerate the squad and get an ounce of faith back?! The Cobblers secured progression to Round Two in style with Michael Jacobs making a real claim for regular first team football.

It was the 18-year-old that would steal the early show at Sixfields, hammering a shot past former Town loanee Michael Poke's arms to give us a surprise lead. If that didn't stun the visitors enough, Billy Mckay's header on eighteen minutes to make it two most certainly did! A cross from the right hand side from Ryan Gilligan was met well by Mckay who made no mistake in putting the Cobblers 2-0 up.

Mckay almost had a second a few minutes later before the incident that killed off Brighton hopes happened ten minutes before the break. Matt Sparrow, so impressive in the Seagulls' win at Swindon on the opening day of the season, saw red for a professional foul and the job was suddenly made a whole lot easier!

Tadhg Purcell made his home debut in the second half, replacing transfer listed Steve Guinan, and nearly scored with one of his first touches as the Cobblers pressed for a third. Fellow substitute Courtney Herbert could also have added to the scoreline but was denied by Poke late in the game. By the though it was all over and the Cobblers had made it into the hat fir Round Two, in which we'll be unseeded meaning that we could well end up facing a Premier League side.

That draw is tomorrow night but the main thing is that the vital first win of the season has been earned, with focus now on the visit of Accrington on Saturday. After the false start at Plainmoor, let's hope that this is the one that gets us going again!