Well I was really hoping that we could end our good half/bad half season today. But no, it was pretty much exactly as the rest of the games have gone. We bossed the first half, them the second and a point is probably a fair result. And a fairly decent point as well, as it maintains our unbeaten away record.
The gulls started the game the brighter, attacking the away end in a match that started in rain and ended bathed in sunlight, but with a consistent wind blowing diagonally across the pitch. We knocked the ball around well first half, and created some half chances. The first of which came when Morris - after weeks of imploring him to do so - knocked the ball past the full back and did him for pace. The low cross was deflected, which put it slightly behind McPhee who's air-kick ensured that the chance was wasted. Shortly afterward we had a free-kick, which Nico ambitiously took on and fired predictably well wide.
When we had the ball we looked great, neat intricate passes aplenty. Howe and Bodins close control ensured that we kept possession well in the right areas, and McPhee's constant movement dragged the home defence this way and that. Morris and O'kane were fairly central figures in this slick passing game.
The home side predictably looked for Bayo at every opportunity, frequently by-passing their midfield. Lewis Young and Aaron Davies looked lively first half, but they created very little from open play. The bestthey could muster was a few tame headers from set pieces which Bobby was able to comfortably field. Things got a little more panicky when a deep free kick was headed back across goal, but their player finished it with air swipe number 2 of the day and the chance was lost - he was flagged offside to spare his blushes.
The best chances of the half clearly fell to us. Firstly, Bodin slipped McPhee away one on one, but McPhee never looked confident and his tame shot was cleared away by a combination of keeper and defender. Towards the end of the half Howe's close control and trickery worked half a yard, and his shot was acrobatically tipped over by Walker in the home goal. The half ended with us on top and Bobby barely stretched.
Could we press home our advantage second half? Erm, no! Northampton were much more alive, quicker to the ball and tidier with it. Moments into the second period they forced a corner and the tone was set for the second half.
Bayo contrived to miss three fairly easy chances in about 5 minutes - the most glaring of which was win Jake Robinson (who flitted in and out of the game - sound familiar?) stood up a perfect cross, which Bayo stretched for but ultimately failed to connect with. Lewis Young was stretching Nico on the home right flank, and when sent away by Davies he was only denied by a sprawling stop from Olejnik.
We were struggling to get any cohesive passing going, and Howe visibly tired and played at a pedestrian pace, minimising our outlet. The referee and linesmen did themselves no favour in endearing themselves to the Gulls fans, by frequently blowing for fouls against Bayo but allowing anything to go on Howe, not to mention a few very bizarre offside calls and one clearly wrong corner call when Olejnik scrambled to keep the ball in (all the more annoying when in the first half, the same occurred with the home keeper and the Lino was nowhere near in line with play and didn't give anything).
Northamptons treat diminished when Davies pulled up with an injury, and from then on their only real clear cut chances were Bobby parrying away long range free kicks from Jacobs.
Although we were hemmed in for much of the half, we did manage to threaten a couple of times. Oastler had a header tipped over from a corner, and one dreadful clearance from the keeper was not punished by the tiring Howe, who was soon removed. Our best chance of the second half was one almighty scramble, no idea what happened but at some point Mansell had a close range effort parried away. Aside from one header over from Northamptons Tozer, that was it for action and a point was gained.
Olejnik - 8 - faultless really (bar one poor throw out). Solid handling and good shot stopping
Oastler - 6 - kept Robinson fairly quiet, but still not sure he is comfortable there
Saah - 7.5 - for once, very few complaints.
Robertson - 8 - solid and dependable, handled Bayo well
Nico - 7.5 - did a decent job against Young, poor set pieces though
Morris - 6 - started well but faded massively
Mansell - 8 - usual high energy stuff. One great challenge, came close to scoring
O'Kane - 7 - guilty of overplaying at times
Bodin - 7 - as Morris, although stayed lively longer
Howe - 6 - flashes of brilliance but struggled for fitness
McPhee - 6.5 - great movement but wasteful
Lathrope - 6.5 - classic strategic booking within moments of coming on, generally tidy
Atieno - 6 - no time to impress
The atmosphere from the home fans was dreadful today, very little noise at all. They didn't look a bad side, Bayo was what you would expect and Young looked a real threat. A point gained? Probably, we certainly looked more solid for longer today.
The benefit of living just 20 minutes away from Sixfields is that I can give you a match report quite early!Â
That was truly a game of two halves. The boys were magnificent in the first half. Bodin and Morris looked really sharp and very dangerous. Howe's  ability to bring people into play was, as ever, magnificent and his first touch fantastic. O'Kane and Mansell were industrious, hard working and passed well. The defence looked assured and Olejnik, on the few times he was called into action, didn't put a foot wrong. That said, there weren't that many real chances of note.
First, Bodin beat a few men on the left side and drilled a wicked cross to McPhee, who was a little unfortunate to get the ball stuck in his feet. Then, after some nice passing, Bodin played McPhee in for a one-on-one chance. Sadly, he hit it very tamely and straight at the keeper, where he probably would've been better blasting it. The last chance of the half fell to Howe, who after good work in the right hand corner, and working his way from an impossible position, hit a shot towards the top corner which Walker did well to turn behind. There was just time for Oastler to send a deflected shot wide, before the half time whistle went. We were on top, and seemed only a matter of time before we scored.Â
Cobblers came out for the second half early, and started off with renewed purpose. Two crucial blocks in quick succession from Saah prevented Akinfenwa scoring. We were standing off and inviting the pressure on. We still had chances - Bodin set up McPhee again for a shot on the turn which was deflected over. Olejnik really kept us in it though, with a magnificent save from the feet of Young. Akinfenwa also let us off the hook, with an unbelievable open goal miss. Mansell had a shot well saved near the death, and it was a nervy moment when a Cobblers player headed narrowly over right at the end, but a draw was a fair result.
Few ratings:
Olejnik: 9 - MOTM for me. Kept us in it with some terrific saves.
Nicho: 7 - had little to do but defended well overall.
Robbo: 7 - committed a few fouls but was generally steady.
Saah: 7 - good game and came up with some crucial blocks. We'll forgive him the comedy airshot.
Oastler: 7 - did well. Passed well and knocked a few great balls forward. Tackled well too.
Morris: 7 - was great first half. Attacked well and kept possession excellently. Faded a little second half but still good.
O'Kane: 6 - Did nothing wrong. Passed well. Just a little anonymous.
Mansell: 6 - similar to O'Kane. Some characteristically good tackling.
Bodin: 8 - excellent. Best outfield player on the pitch. Technically superb and Cobblers couldn't deal with him. Perhaps could look for the pass a bit more!
Howe: 7 - good stuff. Held the ball up, brought people in, and was a general menace.
McPhee: 6 - got himself into good positions but wasted the chances he got.
Subs: not worth mentioning.
Officials: atrocious.
Home crowd: pathetic.
EDIT: forgot to add, me and a few others were filmed for the Football League Show outside the ground. Hopefully we'll make the final edit tonight!
Last edited by miltonkeynesgull on 10 Sep 2011, 19:29, edited 1 time in total.
miltonkeynesgull wrote:
Olejnik: 9 - MOTM for me. Kept us in it with some terrific saves.
Never a good sign when your keeper gets MOM but I'd probably agree, pulled off some good saves today which kept us in it!!
Not sure what happened second half as took us far too long to get going again after the break, Cobblers dominated the first 20-25 mins. Coulda been either side going home with the 3 points towards the end though, looked like we were unlucky though with a couple of goal mouth scrambles but that looked pretty much it!
Just echoing the above really, though Saah and Robbo were both good, kept Bayo on a leash. Woulda been horrible though had he of scored when he was about 2 yards out!!
Was also nice to see Jakey applauding us when he got subbed off too!!!
bixieupnorth wrote:wind causing havoc, will we have sense to keep the ball on the ground? could lead to problems for our defence what with bayo bearing down on them wind assisted too!!
Sorry guys. I really will have to lay off the curry!
There, I spend pre-match telling you how bad we are defensively and then we go an keep a clean sheet!
Anyway, I can't disagree too much with your lads assessments of the game.
You were quite clearly better in the first half and you were knocking it around quite nicely, although your possession didn't really lead to too many clear cut chances.
We were the better team in the second half, and we should have scored one of our chances, Bayo should have really got a hat-trick within 5 minutes but his radar was a little bit off today. Your only real chance in the second half was a mad scramble in the penalty area where we managed to get about 5 consecutive blocks in.
With regards to the ref I thought he was fair enough to both sides. Yes Bayo did get away with a bit today, but I also thought he let Rene Howe get away with a lot of backing in to our defenders, so even stevens there really. The lino got pretty much all the offsides correct (your fans weren't in a great position to spot them from behind the goal), but the one where your keeper stopped the ball going out was a really bad decision, luckily for you we didn't score from that.
I thought you guys were one of the better teams to visit Sixfields so far, yet you're one of the few teams who didn't beat us! You certainly looked better than Morecambe (who sit top of the league). I thought O'Kane was your best player, he looked really good at times, while one of your centre-backs was hilarious. I don't know his name but he basically spent the whole match slicing the ball and slipping over in the penalty area. Provided a bit of light humour to the afternoon anyway.
Good luck for the season guys. To borrow an old managerial cliche, I expect you to be there or thereabouts.
Blimey, a Cobbler who doesn't appear to be a complete bellend, you must cut a lonely figure at parties.
The useless centre back is Brian Saah and today was just about par for the course for him. You'll find plenty on here who like him, but he is a right loser and needs to get himself a talent appropriate job. Street sweeping or some such would be about right.
You guys are much improved on last year. I still don't like you (well, the vast majority of your fellow fans) but I don't reckon you'll struggle as badly as you did last year. Ref wasn't good, but wasn't any worse than the usual L2 crap. The frigging lino up the away end was horrific, having not given us that corner after 5 minutes when the ball was so far over the line it had to be thrown back by a bloke stood in the Sainsbury's carpark, then giving you that one after the great save by Bobby, bloke's a bloody idiot.
Oh well, point a fair result and one with which I'm not too unhappy (away from home). I don't think you'll trouble the playoffs (2/3 of the ball and only really made Bobby make one good save), but you'll certainly not be flirting with the drop as per last year.
As 0-0 games go this one was packed with decent chances. As seems to be our way this season, we played some tidy football at times, but were very, very sloppy at others. There was a spell for about half an hour just after the interval during which we were terrible - it could have cost us dearly. On another day Bayo could have scored three in a period of 5 second half minutes.
That said, we created several decent chances ourselves - We were the stronger side in the first half. with the impressive Bodin pulling the strings. Neat passing put Mcphee clean through, but he never looked confident of putting it away. Shame - his was very hard working and made several decent runs today, but just does not look like a striker in front of goal. He was also caught offside too often today. I must be missing something as he does not look like a fella capable of scoring 16 goals in a season at any level. Morris also put in several decent crosses - it was by far the most effective I have seen him going forward. He lost possession too often, but all of our players seem to have a problem in this department. Howe was decent enough throughout but tired towards the end his tidy footwork forced a cracking save from the keeper just before the break.
After losing our way in the second half we looked a little stronger in the closing minutes. Their keeper made what looked to be another superb save from Mansell. It was at the other end of the pitch but Manse didn't seem to do anything wrong with his shot. He was pretty impressive again today.
All in all, a decent point which I didn't think we would hold out for during long periods of the second half. I have seen us three times this season and whilst we looked tighter than we did at Aldershot I still think we are far too open. Bobby is called into play far too often for my liking and there are periods of 5 or 10 minutes when we just seem to go to sleep as a team. I fear that we will be on the end of a hiding sooner or later. Bobby was very sound today and made one particularly good save when he stood tall on an angled one on one. His throwing distribution was generally very effective today, but on one or two occasions we seemed to be intent on playing football on the edge of our box. We are not good enough for that and it could have cost us.
Although I like the player a lot, I don't think Oastler at right back is working. I also like Manse and O'kane in midfield, but at times we are not strong enough in the tackle which seems to pile the pressure on a defence which is already struggling. Is there a system where we can shore things up and make more of O'Kane's talent? I hear Craig Stanley may be available for a loan?? (only through INTERNET rumour) Stanley and Manse in the middle and O'Kane working off Rene would be interesting.
Have to agree with Matt today, I thought Saah had a bad game. In the first half it was lovely to see Torquay playing passing football again, but in the second half, when Cobblers didn't seem to have made any tactical changes, lost the ability to pass the ball. Watching Northampton in the 2nd half was almost like watching Crawley play...... not brilliant football to watch but they get them selves chances and manage to get under the skin of the opposition.
Want to mention about the Yellow Army today, what seemed to be an away crowd lighter than usual, we were on form. Outsung the library at six fields and on some occasions we had the whole stand joining in. In all a good day ruined by a second half performance.
Sorry, guys, but I thought it was SHITE undiluted Saturday. I resent paying £19 (more than home fans!!) to watch two teams who can't string three passes together and had niether the wit or the ability to grab a winnable game by the scruff of the neck and impose themselves. O'Kane could have done it, but he was below par today. Presumably Ling just said "One sugar?" to them at half time because they looked about as motivated as they did under bloody Cornforth!! NOT IMPRESSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fate: A police dog called Bryn bit Torquay player Jim McNichol and the time while he was receiving treatment was added onto the end of the second half.
looking at the videos i think he was stood right near us.
i had a good day out- good lunch- good company- good car boot sale -good magners ( with ice of course ) my high light of the game were the misses by the fat black cobbler...quality...he must of gone to bed so distraught ( or hit macdonalds to cheer himself up)...knowing our luck the gulls will probably buy him !! no ling NO!!!!!!!
one point in the bag is better than a game lost which given the appalling officials could easily of happened.
I didnt think our travelling yellow army were in the best voice but then there really wasnt too much to sing about..i got home in time for x factor so alls well that ends well!!!
