An exceptional individual performance from Chris Hackett and a gritty team effort ensured 10-man Cobblers left York City with a point in an entertaining game.
Hackett turned in a display as illuminating as the visitors’ fluorescent green shirts and the team needed it to secure a 1-1 draw after Louis Moult was sent off for a rash challenge in the closing stages of the first half.
So effective was the midfielder, and so resilient were his short-handed team-mates around him, that for large parts of the second half it felt like a man played between two teams of 11.
Town’s first scent of the goal came immediately before the game’s first goal when a long Lee Nicholls kick from hands was flicked into the path of the sprinting Moult by Clive Platt.
Moult, in full flight, struck it first time and across Michael Ingham in the York goal but wide of the back post.
Moments later, the home side were ahead, when a Jason Walker flick set Matty Blair clear on goal – Blair outpaced John Johnson down the middle of the pitch and planted a shot past Nicholls with ease.
Hackett was Town’s busiest and best player, taking it upon himself to skip inside challenges and fire shots like the left-footed one that narrowly missed the target on the half-hour mark or the one off the other side that Ingham just about clawed away.
It was no surpise that Hackett was involved when the Cobblers did score, his free-kick squirming from Ingham’s grasp and thrashed into the roof of the net by the grateful Akinfenwa, who needed no second invitation.
The duo combined to contrive a chance for Hackett soon after, the striker expertly diverting the ball into the midfielder’s path only for Ingham to block the eventual shot on the run.
Everything Northampton did well came through Hackett. On 76 he turned his marker inside out and sped away before playing in Danny East with a dead-weight pass that the defender rapped against the goalkeeper’s legs.
York had a lot of the ball – as teams with a man advantage generally do – but frequently chose the wrong option, overhit the final ball or were just dispossessed while deliberating on what to do.
At the other end, Hackett lurked ominously. Hearts were in mouths all over the ground when the ball fell to him on the edge of the box and the Hollywood script already written.
He cushioned a volley with adroit skill, and Ingham was beaten. But the ball drifted just past the post.
York City: Ingham, Parslow, Smith, Carlisle, Fyfield, Kearns, Kerr, McLaughlin, Walker, Chambers, Blair
Subs: Reed (for McLaughlin 67), Oyebanjo (for Kerr 83), Johnson (for Walker)
Not used: Musselwhite, Potts, Challinor, Doig
Cobblers: Nicholls, East, Johnson, Langmead, Widdowson, Hackett, Huws, Tozer, Moult, Akinfenwa, Platt
Subs: Hornby (for Johnson 46)
Not used: Higgs, Charles, Demontagnac, Mukendi, Wilson, Moyo
Attendance: 3,039
Away fans: 253
 |  |