Another chance goes begging as goals fly again

Northampton Town 3-3 Morcambe
League Two
Tuesday, February 15th 2011

Sixfields is quickly becoming the place to be on Tuesday nights with another six goals flying in on the hallowed turf last night. Unfortunately this time the goals were equally shared and the performance was off form enough for Morecambe to grab a deserved point from a game that they could have nicked right at the death after coming from behind three times.

For them it was a fine point, an excellent night of entertainment and you can hardly begrudge the 39 loyal souls that populated the East stand in support of the visitors. The South Stand was closed in anticipation of a small away following but the ones who did turn up were treated to a fine performance from their side and will be wholly more appreciative of the point than the Cobblers fans who trudged home at the end of a poor evening for them.

The fact that Morecambe recovered three times was frustrating enough but the dropping of points, so nearly all three after scorer of the third for them, Paul Mullin, missed a good chance at the end, is the overlying annoyance from the evening. If we’d have held on to a 3-2 lead handed to us by a Leon McKenzie penalty with twenty minutes to go and we would have been in the top half this morning. But Mullin’s equaliser following a game that swung both ways meant that the negatives were highlighted more than the fact that we found the net three times.

Before that late drama, there was seemingly a goal with each attack. An early headed finish from the returning John Johnson got the ball rolling before Kevan Hurst equalised via a couple of harsh deflections. Kevin Thornton, another back in the starting line-up, tapped in the third goal of the game after excellent work from McKenzie but Jimmy Spencer pegged us back once again for 2-2 to set up that finale.

Sammo called it “the worst we’ve played in months” and fans’ tweets, Facebook and forum messages seem to all agree this morning! It was clear that Abdul Osman was sorely missed with the presence of the midfielder leaving a real hole in midfield. It’s something we need to solve before Saturday’s visit of Aldershot – a team that certainly won’t give us any breathing space in there, particularly now they’re led by former Crazy Gang survivor Dean Holdsworth.

There follows another Tuesday night game, away this time at Hereford, and we need to look for at least 4 points from those two now. It feels like defeat writing like this but to many it’s as bad as. Shame to say it but we’ve once again let a chance go begging.

Elsewhere in League Two last night...

Southend and Wycombe played out an absolute belter at Roots Hall with the home side in a game that saw two penalties and five goals, two in the last couple of minutes. Craig Easton thought he had cost his side all three points when he conceded an 89th minute spot kick that Wycombe’s Scott Rendell converted, this after Blair Sturrock had missed one for the home side, but he then popped up to score the winner in stoppage time!

That meant Wycombe made no ground on Chesterfield who drew at fifth placed Bury with had Ryan Lowe to thank again for earning them a share of the spoils. Chesterfield’s Deane Smalley was later sent off in that one. Meanwhile, Rotherham beat Accrington Stanley 2-0 to move back into the top three at the expense of Wycombe.

Lincoln came from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Aldershot while Stevenage and Oxford drew 0-0 at Broadhall Way. Torquay moved back up to tenth in the table following a single goal victory over Burton Albion with the Gulls recording a third league win in a row thanks to Chris Robertson.