To cobblers the last may be first but fans of Northampton Town are trying to understand now that white can be black. At Sixfields on Saturday the Cobblers beat Exeter City 3-0 in a scintillating match that would not have been out of place in any division. Both League Two clubs had won their opening game and beaten League One opposition midweek in the Capital One Cup.
Northampton are now one of five sides with maximum points and have yet to concede a goal. Invited to enthuse afterwards, Chris Wilder, the manager, was all but tetchy. “It wasn’t a 3-0 at all,” he said. “We can’t fluctuate from an OK performance on Saturday to an outstanding one on Tuesday and then to a bang average one today. We scored three cracking goals but they’ve not had the bounce of the ball, we made some great blocks and the goalkeeper [Adam Smith] was outstanding.”
Not content with that, after a game that had fizzed with crisp passing and nonstop, electric running, he added: “We didn’t pass the ball well, we didn’t make the right decisions and our energy levels weren’t great.”
Wilder is nothing if not unpredictable. Having taken Oxford United from the Conference to sixth in League Two, he left them in bewildering fashion 18 months ago for Northampton, who were bottom. They survived by winning their last two matches, sending down Bristol Rovers, who bounced straight back only to be beaten by Northampton on the opening day. After hitting a side when it was up – that was the “OK performance” – they hit one that is down, Blackpool, 3-0 while Exeter were achieving the greater scalp of Swindon away. Exeter, enjoying the stability of Paul Tisdale’s nine-year management, were no mean opponents. “I don’t think we were that far away,” he said, but admitted Northampton were “more effective”.
If Wilder’s reaction was not a case of mind games and management of expectations, it was madness that adds to the fans’ prevailing mystification. In June the chairman, David Cardoza, revealed he had agreed to sell his controlling share in the club to an Indian consortium. Being London-based, they may not be chicken farmers but fans, as long as they remain in the dark, are wondering if the deal is cock-eyed. John Morris, chairman of the club’s charitable foundation and former general secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control, was not alone in the programme in referring to the uncertainties hanging over the club and the need to sort them out quickly.
Wilder, whose work he commended in spotting talent and developing it, not only has been given the time and money to assemble the squad he wants but is doing his best to make the club look a good buy, notwithstanding what Morris calls “the steel skeleton of an East Stand”, a monument at present to over-ambition.
The goals came from everywhere except the three of the 4-2-3-1 who buzzed as impressively as any, Lawson D’Ath, Alfie Potter and Nicky Adams. In the second quarter Jason Taylor, of the defensive two, volleyed in from 20 yards, with Exeter surprised by a free‑kick taken short, and the centre-back Ryan Cresswell headed home a long one. Afterwards Taylor, man of the match, said: “We’ve got to knuckle down and go again [at Barnet tomorrow].”
“We weren’t quite at it for much of the time,” added Cresswell. Heaven help opponents if they are. Both had had the Wilder debriefing. Marc Richards’ late third goal rounded off a typically swift attack from Ricky Holmes’ cross.
In a nominal curiosity each side introduced a Holmes and Hoskins from the bench in the second half, when Exeter switched from 4-1-4-1 to 3-1-4-2 and put their tricky Holmes (Lee) up against Josh Lelan, the first man booked by Ross Joyce, handling his first League match since promotion this season. At 29, from Cleveland, he is the youngest of the 62 referees and looked an old hand. City were more dangerous for the substitution and Smith, lately acquired from Leicester, made an exceptional save from Will Hoskins in a busier second half.
Fifty years ago Northampton were “enjoying” their only season in the top tier, in a decade which they started and finished where they are now. The manager, in his wilder dreams, may be reliving it. They already have a League Cup tie to look forward to at Newcastle next week. Sense may return only when the Cobblers are sold and healed.
