County v Northampton: Match Thread (14/01/2023)

So who are Northampton Town, well apart from being a pre-season favourite of mine for automatic promotion they are the current 3rd place side with a record of P 25 W 13 D 7 L 5 F 40 A 26 so, rather like last year they are tight at the back and efficient but not spectacular up front. They, of course, beat County 2-1 back in September so double-dodging should be the order of the day.

Their A record is pretty good P 12 W 6 D 4 L 2 F 20 A 13 which merits respect. The Ws were 2-3 v Crawley, 0-2 at AFC Wimbledon, 1-2 at Swindon, 2-3 at Stevenage, 0-2 at Gillingham and 1-3 at Bratfut. The Ds were Grimsby 1-1, 2-2 at Crewe (one of Crewe's rare games with more than 1 goal), 0-0 at Orient and 1-1 at Mansfield. The Ls were 1-0 at Walsall back in Oct and 2-1 at Salford City. Recent form is a little more mixed W 2 D 2 L 2.

Nothing to sniff at there. Top scorer in the league is Sam Hoskins, all 5 foot 6 and-a-half inches of him, with 16 goals in 20 starts, including 1 in that 2-1 W (the other being Harvey Lintott). Then comes on-loan-from-Fulham 6-foot 3 striker Kieron Bowie on 4, then Louis Appere and Mitchell Pinnock on 3 and then a bunch of 1s and 2s, a total of 12 having scored in the league. So they spread the goals around a bit.

They also recently (December) signed Josh Harrop former Preston NE (95 apps and 13 goals) and Man Ure Midfielder. They look to have about as much quality as you'd expect at this level and will probably be hard to beat. I'd almost settle for a 0-0 with this lot, if only to deny them the double of County this season.

Game on: fingers crossed.

Rebecca Welch has refereed very well, when in charge of our games.

OK so we are 1-0 up and that's nice, but this Northampton side has goals in them so a) let's keep a clean sheet, b) maybe nick a second, c) maybe switch to 3 CBs in the second half - although that might mean Collar covering at RWB.

Anyway, fingers crossed.

That is a very good win after a couple of disappointing results in January.

Interestingly we play Crewe next week and the other 10 of the top 11 sides play each other. Something has to give. Win one of the games in hand and the play-off places are there to be picked off one by one.

The opportunity is certainly there for County. Looking ahead a bit, the next 8 games are as follows:

Crewe (17th) A
Bratfut Citeh (7th) H
AFC Wombledon (13th) A
Tranmere (15th) H
Harrogate Town (20th) A
Crawley Town (21st) H
Stevenage (2nd) H
Rochdale (22nd) A

So two top teams in that 8 but the rest are against mid table or lower. I'd say 16 points out of 24 is very doable from that list, maybe a few more. Rather like last season the fixture list gives County a chance to make hay before the final run in begins and I don't think many teams will be fancying a game against County.

I met the incredibly nice Rebecca Welch before the game, and, being all fan-girly, told her she had been the best ref to officiate at EP for the last 10 years or so! I'm not sure which one of us blushed more, but she was excellent again today - and if there's any justice, she should be on the Premier League rota before too much longer.