Much improved Cobblers still no match for Splendid City.

 

Northampton Town were almost unrecognisable from the rag tag army that took on Lincoln City at the Sixfields stadium a few weeks ago where they conspired to get booed off by their own supporters after an abject performance that suggested a long hard winter ahead.

Cobblers started off in some style justifying City fans fears that three points was far from a foregone conclusion but thoughts that they couldn’t necessarily keep up their searing pace began to be justified as City refused to bend to Northampton’s will and eventually clawed their way to another three points.

City are unbeaten in six now and show no signs of being unable to maintain their grip on the top spots as maybe some pundits were expecting but the next few games will show if the Imps are the real deal.

Maybe they will, maybe they won’t but theses are exactly the sort of games that have to be put to bed if promotion is to be achieved and City showed their appetite for the fray is undiminished as they leave the Christmas programme behind and the nights draw out.

Cobblers were perhaps still shell shocked from the battering they received before Christmas and they certainly showed there is more to their game than the kick and rush tactics they employed last time out. I said at the time, as did several Imps fans, that I refused to condemn them for their approach to the game the last occasion the teams met but it has to be admitted, as was often said of the Imps that they were good at what they did. That was usually a very backhanded complement but the fact remains that City often prospered from their pared back tactics and it was no use complaining when teams were beaten by City’s version of the game. That was then though and Northampton’s version was nowhere good enough to live with City and the new improved even thoughtful approach wasn’t either.

Michael Appleton made some changes to personnel and tactics for this game. Did they work? Well three points says they did and when all said and done that is all that matters.

Will they stay the course? All you can say is we are about at the halfway point and City are joint top. Whether they can stay there may be clearer this time next week but whatever happens the Imps are in some exalted company and I would not imagine some of the rivals round about us and particularly their fans will be particularly enamoured to be rubbing shoulders with us.

Those of us of rather less tender years will remember that this is not the first time City have looked out at the prospect of second tier football. It didn’t happen for us last time but I don’t recall City being anything like as ready to make another leap forward under the great Colin Murphy with the club almost in a state of civil war and the hierarchy unwilling or unable to make the necessary investment to make progress happen. In these unprecedented times City are a model of harmony compared to those now distant times and whilst it would be a seismic shock to the league one football fraternity not to mention our own supporters, I certainly wouldn’t bet against us.

 

 

The Imps and Posh went to sea in a beautiful red and white boat.

 

It looked for some time like City would get soaked too but they eventually steadied the ship and despite what Posh's manager said, well he would wouldn’t he, were a little bit unlucky not to take all the points.

I watched the Sky offering and at one point their camara showed Posh manager Darren Ferguson sat in the stand texting. Wonder who to? Are you watching this, how the hell are we not leading any more perhaps?

Well after the start they made you do wonder yet all along I was thinking, they can’t keep this up all game and indeed they didn’t and it was City, given the wounds they had inflicted upon Peterborough, who surely were the most aggrieved at failing to extract maximum points.

That they didn’t probably rests on the shoulders of one of City’s most reliable performers and most reliable penalty takers, Jorge Grant. That other spot kick specialist, John Akinde got all sorts of grief, wrongly in my view, when he fluffed one, at Notts County but there was none of that, quite rightly, yesterday when Jorge had a rush of blood. He’s still pencilled in as a possible player of the season in my book and many others too I’d think.

This game had the sort of top of the table clash feel I didn’t get from the other battles against the leading sides, the sort of game, now were banished from the stadium, you’d feel most comfortable watching from behind the sofa as Peterborough, predictably, started at full speed leaving us all wondering if we’d ever get the ball and successfully hang on to it.

City did eventually get in the game and gave as good as they got but, for me Tom Hopper was a big miss and the game surely cried out for Harry Anderson to get on one of his raids testing tired Posh legs later on. Well they weren't available and it's no use crying over spilt milk. It was pointed out in the analysis on tv that City’s possible achilles heel is the size of the squad and that of course is a worry.

However one door closes and another opens and Morgan Rogers came on and gave us a glimpse of what we may be getting in the weeks to come. Gary Hutchinson said on Matchday Live that Rogers wasn’t a shoo in for the Imps but after that cameo I wouldn’t be surprised to see him grab a place in the starting line up before long and he’s going to take some shifting once he’s in.

An honourable mention for Anthony Scully who took the Sky man of the match award, Radio Lincolnshire gave it to Jorge Grant. Both were stand out players but I was pleased to see Scully get his accolade after probably his best performance in red and white.

Later on in the evening I watched Hull and Sunderland grind out a turgid one-all draw, the ideal result for us and wondered, not for the first time in these almost unprecedented times if that little imp high up on his perch in Lincoln Cathedral has got his red and white striped shirt on again.

Ready or not. Here we come.

 

Danny Cowley had a saying he used quite a lot. Oh, this club or that club, they’re a year ahead of us, or we’re two years from them. I suspect what he meant was, don’t expect too much just yet. He was wrong of course or at least he didn’t mean that at all because the goodies just kept on rolling in.

Yesterdays win against Wimbledon was just the kind of performance that brings rewards. City were certainly not at their best but had a bit too much for their opponents. That’s the way it goes usually. Very few sides are totally dominant all the time, to be successful you often have to be a bit better, have a bit of luck, don’t make so many mistakes.

As for being ready, who is? Listening to Clive Nates on BBC Radio Lincolnshire yesterday his attitude seems to be, you get promoted, we’ll worry about the finances. It’ll be a worry too. We were a big fish in a small pond in non-league, not that we always behaved like it. In league two City were still a sizeable animal, thanks largely to said Mr Cowley, a forward-thinking board, investors who aren’t afraid to invest and you, my dear fellow fans, turning up in the numbers you have.

Now in league one we’re a relative minnow and worse than that we fans sit at home so you get a double whammy of less income, at a time its desperately needed and our vocal support, that I hope also plays a part. To get promoted yet higher would surely blow the fuse. It would mine.

Talking of Clive Nates, it was my birthday recently and I received a happy birthday message from him. Now I’m sure a lot of you will say, don’t flatter yourself, so did I. In a modern business it’s not that difficult to do that sort of thing although I’d imagine quite a lot of clubs would be too grand or would regard their supporters as cannon fodder and not wish to dirty their hands communicating with the hoi polloi but not our Clive. Furthermore it was not a standard message delivered at the push of a button in the office because when I replied wishing him and everyone at the club a Happy Christmas I got a reply to that. What sort of chairman would find time, on Christmas Eve to wish a happy birthday to one of thousands of supporters? The best sort I’d say. In a time of, to put it bluntly, charlatans taking over football clubs, I could name some but won’t, stripping those clubs of their assets or running them into the ground, how lucky did we get landing Clive Nates in these uncertain times? Very very lucky gets nowhere near.

As to the game, I suppose we should at least touch on that and I’m glad I spent a tenner to watch it on i follow rather than do as I usually do and listen to the commentary on the radio. I’ve noticed our commentary team get a bit of stick lately but, come on, sat there in reception as a result of the current travel restrictions producing a commentary as good as that watching the game on i follow just like we were I say well done. I know some of the sports team follow me on twitter so may read this so I say again, well done.

I say well done to our team too. Wimbledon were none too shabby, they won’t have to play many teams as good as us and I think they’ll be alright. It was good to see Alex Woodyard again, he’s lost his way a bit, but I’d have him back. It’s a salutary lesson in his case, taking the Peterborough United shilling and then realising the grass isn’t always greener. Oh, and Ollie Palmer scored against a former club. Imagine my surprise!