Forest Green Rovers 0-3 Northampton Town
FA Cup First Round
Saturday, November 6th 2010
Michael Jacobs has gone from one end of the footballing spectrum to the other and back again in just a few short months this season. Starting the campaign as a secret weapon of a youngster trying to break into the first team, his stock grew and grew until he scored the vital second goal at Anfield in front of the Kop and then slotted home a penalty in the shoot out. But it was back to smaller and far less grand surroundings yesterday with Jacobs scoring the third goal in a comfortable 3-0 win at Conference side Forest Green Rovers.
The goal, a fine finish from just outside the area, was Jacobs’ first touch after replacing Paul Rodgers with fifteen minutes to go and rounded off a good win that sends the Cobblers through to within one more step of yet another potential money spinning tie. There were one or two moment to scare the Cobblers in this one but the biggest threat of Forest Green getting back into the game died out when Reece Styche had a penalty saved by Chris Dunn. Relief all round there, particularly for Ben Tozer, who had brought down Ross Dyer to concede the spot kick.
With the score at 2-0 at that point there could well have been a nervy last half hour in store for Town had the penalty gone in but instead Sammo’s men held out for a third straight win that lifts confidence further following the most rockiest of Octobers.
The first half goals came from John Johnson, a rasping volley from distance and from Steve Guinan who latched onto a Billy McKay pass and coolly slotted under James Bittner for the second. That was the platform we needed to professionally kick on after the break and seal a route through to Round Two.
The cup adventures that we’ve had this season are not over quite yet and a handy draw this afternoon (ITV1 at 2pm, the Cobblers are ball number 33) would give us yet more hope of glamour in this bizarre season. Greedy, much?!
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