Crawley Town 3-1 Northampton Town
I said on Saturday that it was far from over in terms of the race to secure 100% safety and it’s still, frustratingly, hanging over us after a third straight defeat made this Saturday’s trip to Hereford more dangerous than it could have been. Defeat to another promotion candidate on the road shouldn’t be frowned upon too much but the mistakes that contributed to it will be a source of concern for Aidy Boothroyd.
Neal Kitson suffered the first blot on his copy book in a forgettable first half for a Cobblers side who hadn’t been entirely outplayed as the score line at half-time might suggest but who did find themselves 3-0 down by that point. Kitson’s own goal was the third of a trio of goals that on another day could have been dealt with, one of which came from the head of former Town loanee Billy Clarke.
The only thing left for us to do was to try and ‘win the second half’ and although it won’t win us any prizes we at least did that as Brett Williams pounced for 3-1 just after the hour mark. Toni Silva rattled the bar and Williams the post late on but that’s as close as we got against a side who moved into the top three and kept us on the edge of our pants for Saturday.
It’s true that we should be OK but to any Town fan that knows their club inside and out that won’t be good enough until it’s mathematically safe for us to breathe again. Victory at Hereford would do it whilst a point would also be enough should Macclesfield fail to win at Bradford. We could really do without it going to the final two games of the season with two tricky games to round it off so let’s hope for a big turnaround at Edgar Street which may include putting another nail in the Bulls’ coffin at the same time.
Again, until there’s enough daylight to be absolutely sure, the celebrations are well and truly on ice!
