I got my ticket and had a rather fine evening. Route One is an understatement for these cowboys.
Someone said they Northampton make Chesterfield look like Real Madrid and in many ways they hit the nail on the head. The Cobblers are the most direct team I think I have ever seen and considering we saw the Beck incarnations of both Cambridge and Preston and the Devon White inspired Bristol Rovers then that is truly saying something.
Northampton are the only side I have ever seen who see defending a corner kick as a genuine attacking opportunity. I’ve never seen a team move the ball into the oppositions last third as quickly and effectively as these. Only when the need for brawn is lessened and the requirement for skill and imagination comes into play do they struggle.
The key to tonight was seeing out the first twenty minutes bombardment and going on to build on that success. We did just that. After negotiating the aforementioned blitz we started to make the ball stick upfront as Rammell and Brissett came more into the game. The midfield didn’t need to be won as the home side didn’t really have one and as Keates in particular drove the ball between defence and attack a goal became more and more likely.
The half finished kind of petered out as we negated all that Northampton could muster and then as the whistle arrived a couple of blokes, apparently wolves fans, took a beating right behind the goal. Ouch.
Come the second half and come the man. Enter Siggy Icelander, a new six foot three inch centre forward straight out of the Adolf Hitler order book of perfect breeds. Not an ounce of fat on this boy believe me and he had a pretty decent half.
“Siggy’s off the Beechdale” takes the award for best song of the season so far and he certainly won the crowd over. Rammell, as ever, was immense both in defence and in attack and inevitably the goal revolved around him.
A hopeful hack upfield with AR and a defender challenging for a 50/50 ball. The Ram not only won the ball but made it stick and got the move going. Seconds later he was in the box and heading towards goal. A most helpful home keeper spilled a regulation catch and Darko followed in to open his Saddlers account.
One nil up and twenty two minutes to hang on would be nailbiting but I really fancied us. They huffed and they puffed but our back four isn’t made of sticks. We held out and took our ninth league away win. Not bad for a side with a dodgy away record, eh Mr Instone.
Uncle Ray would have loved this one in particular though. The good guys overcoming the evil that is route one and a clean sheet to boot. It probably doesn’t get any better than this.
Fulham, PNE and Gillingham also win so this was a really important result for us. Man City in fifth place are now ten points behind us with a game in hand and Stoke in seventh are fifteen points behind us. To say things are looking good is probably the cue for the self destruct button to be pressed so I won’t.