Platt…first of the season salvages draw
Northampton Town 1-1 Scunthorpe United
League Two
Saturday, September 7th 2013
The overriding emotion after Saturday’s draw with Scunthorpe United is one of relief after the Cobblers came from a goal behind to dig out a point that pulls us away from what would have been an uncomfortable five defeats in six in League Two. As it was, thanks to Clive Platt doing no harm at all to his public relations chances, Town pulled a point out of the bag from a potentially tricky fixture and were left feeling a lot better about themselves.
Platt’s performance in particular would have been pleasing for his team mates and manager who have backed him to the hilt against plenty of pressure, this blogger included. The big man earned the Man of the Match award for his hold up play and the vital goal that came three minutes from time after a game sparse of genuine chances apart from the goals.
Scunthorpe had come to town looking to put an end to a bad early run of letting leads slip and looked to have avoided doing just that when Niall Canavan’s header broke the deadlock mid-way through the second half. After missing a golden opportunity in the first half, there was no stopping the defender as he powered in from an in swinging corner.
After a goal mouth scramble that Matt Duke did well to claim the ball from, the Cobblers settled and came back strong to earn the point with Platt chasing down a long ball and knocking the ball home left footed for his first goal of the season. It seemed just reward and will hopefully see him continue to positively battle Jacob Blyth for that ‘big man’ position up front and start to prove his doubters wrong. A couple of goals would go a long way to getting a good number of people off his back.
Town could still have won it late on with a couple of decent chances but a point was a fair result from a game that could easily have swing the other way.
With another home game, against Exeter City, up next it’s a good chance to really kick away from some poor early form in league and cup and now really is the time to stop looking for scapegoats and get more people back to Sixfields.
There’s a chance that an experienced defender could come in by the end of the week and it does still look like we need that leader at the back that can organise and be the voice that’s lacking at the moment in the back four.
It’s a baby step in the right direction but we have to take what we can get at the moment and really go for the three points against Exeter on Saturday to get rid of those early cobwebs.
A Load Of Cobblers 