Lloydy direkt från Northampton!
"The match could have been a lot better if it weren’t for some picky and inconsistent refereeing and one linesman who couldn’t raise his flag quick enough whenever a QPR player had the ball"
Vår korrespondent på plats på Sixfields rapporterar...
The Northampton game is probably the closet match for me by car though it was my first visit to ‘Sixfields’. Sixfields is a large retail complex with shops, cinema, restaurants and of course Northampton Town’s ground.
Plenty of parking and well signposted meant I found the ground quite easily and it was straight to get a burger to try and settle the stomach after a rather heavy night the night before. Whilst I had probably already drunk enough beer on Friday night, it was then into the bar at the bowling alley to meet up with the other regulars for a beer before the match.
The football ground was newly built about ten years ago and seems to be built into the side of a hill as you can see most of the pitch from the road at the top. Throughout the match there were people standing up along the road to get a free but distant view of the match. The match was designated ‘all-ticket’ so none were available on the day so I would have expected a full ground (only about 6000 I think) but there was plenty of room in the home areas and as such we should have been given two sides of the ground as we would have sold them all.
What we really wanted though was three points for the Rs and we were up against a side that we haven’t beaten since we joined Division 2 and who had managed only 1 point at home since November. Northampton also has a fairly new manager in the shape of Terry Fenwick, ex-QPR hero.
With injuries to key players meant QPR lined up without Carlisle, Langley or Pacquette and so there were starts for Wes Daly, Leroy Griffiths and up front was Thomson and Furlong. Things were to get worse for QPR within 10 minutes when Wes Daly fell awkwardly and twisted his knee. Marcus Bean replaced him on the right of midfield. I don’t think the injury is too serious though as I was sitting next to his cousin who spoke to him at half-time but as with all injuries it will be a couple of days before we know for sure.
Things were to get worse for the side as Northampton took the lead. Their captain, the 57 year old, 57 stone, mullet-headed forward Marco Gabbiadini who fell down throughout the game at any given opportunity beat Danny Shittu down the right and crossed for them to score the opening goal. The best chance we had during the half was from Gallen who latched onto a long ball from the back only to put it just wide with only the keeper to beat. At that stage he was back in his usual position of upfront, as Thomson had to go off. Chris Plummer replaced him for his first appearance since breaking his ankle against Swansea in last seasons FACup defeat. It was great to see him back again and he put in a good performance at the back alongside Danny Shittu.
With a team missing a number of its best players QPR came out in the second half in determined mood and Paul Furlong turned his man and drove in a low shot for the equaliser. That was his fifth goal of the season and I have to say he actually had quite a good game in comparison to some of his performances. A draw was a fair result in the end and with many of our closest competitors losing it was not as bad a result as it might have been. We now have a run of games from whom we must pick up maximum points before we have to play those teams who are above us again.
The match could have been a lot better if it weren’t for some picky and inconsistent refereeing and one linesman who couldn’t raise his flag quick enough whenever a QPR player had the ball. He even gave Gallen offside on one occasion when it was Gallen who played the ball over the defender and ran onto it himself!! He did though finally get wise to Gabbiadini’s constant attempts to win free kicks and rightly booked him.
Both sides did have chances to win the match, Culkin pulled off a great save stopping what would have been an own-goal and Bean cleared a header off the line. At the other end Danny Shittu almost scored from a corner in injury time with Gallen and Furlong also going close before then.
With the match over it was back to the car park to attempt to get out of Northampton and as is usually the case in small towns with one access road to the site there was total gridlock but I did finally manage to make my way home.
Roll on Port Vale next weekend when I believe your very own T Currie will be providing updates from Loftus Road and I am sure that he, even more than most of us, will be hoping Richard Pacquette has recovered from injury.
