Even against Southend you could see that Boeteng is a class act. It's just that a few things weren't coming off like they might do in another game. That's sport for you.
It is when Boateng gave the ball away and getting caught in possession more times than Britney Spears. However by and large the midfield did ok with JJOT prominent through out. Taylor was also prominent particularly 1st half ; all these
previous negative snipes at him for a bloke who yesterday had two good attempts on goal one of which directly led to one. He then added two more assists to his name
. For those not there yesterday he did have a quieter 2nd half but made several interceptions and two decent tackles. Talking about the second half Southend fizzled out and ended up withdrawing at least two of their front 3. The other contributory factor to the second half was that the Cobblers defensively settled down and far more at the races. Diamond in particular had a fine 2nd half. Smith was good too and both he and Diamond are getting back to their best. JE's handling of subs was good with the exception of Wylde whose speed and directness caused them problems , that is when he had the opportunity. Perhaps his fitness is a problem. Both JJOT and McCourt have lost weight and he (McCourt) also played well when he came on. Perhaps also he is regaining his fitness and confidence. I liked the Cobblers crowd yesterday ; in fine voice and humorous with it. Liked the bit to see Insider standup spread his arms in true missionary style ; uncertain if he was attempting to incite the oppo but looked good. Some big burly black bloke came in late who was greeted by his pals with shouts of snowy!
If we could just keep our momentum going for 85 mins then the game could have been won. To me I never had any doubt that we would hold out in the last xtra 6 mins. We had more of the ball in any case.
PS Buchs had a decent game and God knows what Eardley was upto in the first 20 mins.