Well. Horrible performance, but these things happen. We have been excellent at home this year (just not the strikers - last home goal from a centre forward was Bradshaw's against Accrington!) and that does help patch up our dodgy away form. I think 3 of the present top 5 will be in the top three come the end of the season - Crawley and Sarfend don't look to me like dropping out, whereas Cheltenham are a level below imo, with us and the ominously in-form Swindon. Plenty of competition for that third spot, and the likes of Burton will also be very much in the mix, but I don't think they have quite enough quality to finish top three. We have a lot of home games to come, so I remain hopeful. There are some positives to draw from yesterday: we actually scored against Bradford (Southend didn't); one of our strikers scored for the first time since Northampton and despite the horrible performance away to a difficult team, we're still not Bristol Rovers. Tomorrow we entertain bottom of the pile Northampton, not an easy game by any means. They still have quality in their squad, notably Akinfenwa who ALWAYS SCORES AGAINST US! Arguably the biggest flops of the season, Northampton's ranks include former Town players Kelvin Langmead and Jake "the twat" R*binson. Both players have struggled this season, and while Langmead can still be viewed as a useful part of the squad, R*binson's lack of goals or anything resembling a half-decent performance have seen him transfer-listed and dropped. Akwasi Asante has joined on loan from Birmingham and I know approximately the same amount about him as R*binson knows about scoring, so I'm going to pretend I do and say that he'll be a handful. Recent league form: LLDLLL [*]Top Scorers: Akinfenwa (8), Jacobs (6), Berahino (4) Last Meeting: Northampton 2-7 Shrewsbury (Akinfenwa, Tozer; Wright (2), Wildig, Morgan, Collins, Jacobson, Langmead (og) ) Northampton's League Position: 24th, 17 points from 23 games, -20 Goal Difference [*]Northampton's Away Record: W3, D1, L7, F15, A23 Shrewsbury's Home Record: W8, D2, L0, F17, A5 Lenny's SUPER Fact: Jake R*binson hasn't scored this season in 32 games. Lenny's Prediction: Shrewsbury 3-1 Northampton, Attendance 6,123 (Morgan, Hurst and R*binson OG) P.S: Wroe has broken his second and third metatarsal. Out for, quite possibly, the rest of the season.
Must win game for Northampton to lift themselves off the bottom. Shrewsbury 5 (Ainsworth 5) Northampton 0 Attendance 5511 Wroe out for 6 to 8 weeks. That makes 2 of our players crippled as a result of criminal activity by fat bastards or thugs.
excellent thread lenny, good decision to leave it until today to post. sadly imo yesterday was a watershed for both clubs. please do not discount bantams finishing in the top 7 yes lol, but i believe it. the shrews have some awkward fixtures to face this january and with the wrong result tomorrow and no league game next weekend, town may be cast adrift of the main pack. to be fair they have come up against formidable defences at chelt and bantams, but tomorrow our strikers could let rip and restore our all important gd. i am changing my mind about a 0-0 draw and go for a 2-0 town win, gornell wright att 5233 . in doing this i am assuming uncle grahams dulcet tones warmed the ears of saturdays miscreants. we beat this lot 7-2 away a few weeks ago. come on you shrews breath on em, floreat salopia
Sorry to hear about Wroe, but someone's suffering gives someone else (McAllister or Wallace/Wildig) a chance in CM. Shrewsbury 3 v 1 Northampton Morgan, Collins, Gornell. Att 6500 COYBs, we need an excellent win on Monday.
ok bradford are not going up and neither are the shrews on this performance.. hereford are doing the shrews a big favour and cheltenham go from strength to strength. looks like swindon are serious promo contenders. looks as though gt has plenty of lemons to dump this month. the gas appear doomed
gutted...play offs only to hang on to, yet AGAIN!!, we are definitely not good enough for the top table, but we should still be good enough for the wondrous four, our next four matches will be crucial...Marvin as a super sub perhaps?
Really poor. Worse, or maybe more disappointing would be better, than the Bradford result. Created more than enough to win, but needed a stunning goal from the excellent Richards to give us a point. They looked decent, but weren't so good that they should have got a point, and they showed their ambition by timewasting with less than half an hour gone. They almost scored after 23 seconds, then Sharps hit the post at the wrong end, but we settled and were the better team. We should have had at least one penalty, when Morgan's man (Langmead) had his hands all over him. However, a poor performance. Gornell worked hard but was fairly toothless and got booked for a poor dive, Morgan was horribly profligate (as usual - he tried to flick with his heel when he could have headed from 8 yards), and McAllister and Ainsworth looked like players without much game time. Ainsworth was really poor, he looked uninterested - suggests to me he's definitely off. Grandison was excellent, won everything in the air and was immense. Their goal was as a result of us sending all four defenders forward for the inevitably poor free-kick, and then leaving McAllister and Ainsworth to defend. This squad needs a LW, a good, hard-tackling CM and a goalscorer. We were very vulnerable on the counter. The worst thing was those who made the loudest cheer when Wright went off. People were on his back all game - not what a confidence player like him needs. Taylor was just as bad when he came on, but people were praising him, crying for a shot when Wright's attempts were met with mirth. Excellent attendance today.
Unbelievable. Should have been 4-4 at half time. and 11-5 at full time. Must say I disagree about Ainsworth. He was the one forward capable of consistently running at and beating a man whereas Northampton had 3. With better finishing, his assists would have almost doubled for the season. We definitely missed Wroe. McCallister found it very difficult to impose himself. Richards MOM. Quality display.
