One man's pain as Barnet leather the Cobblers

It is midnight, as Haydon Spenceley sits at his keyboard. He’s had a tough week, one way or another, and he has work in the morning, but he cannot sleep. He cannot even countenance going to sleep.

One of the reasons, amongst the maelstrom which is keeping him from his land of slumber:

Northampton Town.

Northampton chuffing Town. 20 long years they’ve been one of very few constant companions through life, through its ups and downs, joys and sorrows. More often than not, they’ve been the cause of some of the biggest extremes of both.

On very few occasions during our marriage have the waters been so choppy as to make me question my commitment and seek the greener grass of other pastures, to succumb to the fluttering eye-lashes from rivals competing for my affection.

But tonight, as I look back on another disastrous day, in an increasingly miserable season, I tell you this, dear reader, I very nearly watched X Factor. That’s how bad it’s got.

And when my boys are toiling at the Don Valley on Tuesday night against Rotherham, will I be there? No, I sodding well will not. As of this moment I’d be happy if I never saw them again. Any of them.

“But Haydon”, you may be saying. “Aren’t Northampton those valient conquerers of Reading and Liverpool, those who brought joy to a nation as Roy’s Reds were put to the sword by a team of postmen and school teachers, barely 2 months ago?”

Why yes, they are, and tonight I feel like most of them wouldn’t get into the Royal Mail’s reserves, let alone our first team.

You see, Carling Cup exploits aside (and they were amazing, life-affirming nights) we’ve been rank bad for the vast majority of the rest of the season. A team of promising youngsters (Michael Jacobs and Liam Davis have been justifiably been attracting plaudits and covetous glances from higher up the League ladder for their performances) and experienced but diligent professionals such as Andy Holt, Leon Mckenzie and Kevin Thornton, should have been enough at least for a play-off challenge.

Certainly anyone who’s seen us when it all clicked (Brighton, Reading, Liverpool, and an all too small smattering of league games) couldn’t argue that the raw materials were missing. So, as we sit tonight, 22nd in League Two, 70th out of 72 in the Football League, one has to ask the question, what’s going on?

Today we surrendered an early lead against Barnet, who appeared to be bottom of the pile for a very good reason, lost Liam Davis to as clear a red card as you’ll ever see.

There were protestations from around me that the referee and linesman were getting back at us following last week’s referee wrongly sending off Abdul Osman and being proved wrong after his suspension was overturned.

What?!

We proceeded to not just lose, but be humiliated, 4-1 by a team who plainly wanted it more than us, and played to their strengths.

Kevin Gallen (yes, that one) and Steve Kabba (yes, really, that one) up front were a constant menace to our squalid excuse for a back four, and only an exceptional shot-stopping performance from Chris Dunn kept things to anything below a cricket score.

At times, the full back play of Grant Basey, and the wing play of Mark Marshall were too much for our defence, which seemed disorganised, lacking in effort and quality. The number of times Barnet sprang Gallen in behind our defence, so that he could lumber forward and then miss, aghast, became almost comical.

This is Barnet, who are, to be frank, not up to much, but who quite clearly worked us out, and ruthlessly exploited our (many) weaknesses with aplomb.
Barnet. We got stuffed by Barnet. And they deserved it. No, it doesn’t get any more palatable.

So, where from here? Well, up. Hopefully. Please? We can’t get much worse, that’s for sure.

Personally I have a few small aims for the next few weeks. Firstly, it’d be lovely if we could be disciplined enough to keep our full compliment on the pitch for 90 minutes. I’ve heard that makes it easier to win games. Secondly it’d be absolutely fabulous if players could play in the poisition which they were trained from childhood and signed to play in.

So, please, can we have a left back at left back, a right back at right back, some wingers on the wing, and so on? I know it’s a lot to ask, but if I have to watch any more full backs play on the wing and forwards playing in midfield, and so on and so on, I think I might give up. Surely if you have a round hole, the best way to fill it is with a round peg? No? Okay then.

We also have, in Michael Jacobs, one of the only players in League Two who terrifies defenders. Why is he not being used more? Unfathomable.

Thirdly, I want to see a change of manager. I’ve been a supporter of Ian Sampson’s since the day when it became obvious that the club’s ambition for the replacement of Stuart Gray (just over a year ago, after a defeat to, you guessed it, Barnet) did not extend to searching outside the doors of the
club.

It’s great to be managed by a club legend who cares so deeply that we succeed, but I fear that, if he stays, we will cease to be one of the 72 come May, and that cannot, it must not, happen.

Passion only gets you so far in football, and the increasing weight of results and performances, as well as our worrying recent disciplinary record, and rumours from within the dressing room, indicate that all is not well, and that Sammo is not the man to solve them. Sadly, he must go. The season is a dead loss already, but I can’t take many more days like today.

Were there any positives? Yes. Steve Guinan didn’t get near the bench, and we’re not Almeria.

Now where’s the number for that marriage counsellor?

Northampton Town's glorious, gigantic hangover

They only went and bloody did it. He doubted them, the scoundrel. And they only went and bloody won at Anfield. Haydon Spenceley wakes up and rubs his bleary eyes before putting fingers to keyboard about just how amazing last night was for him and thousands of other Northampton Town fans.

Unforeseen glory

So it’s the afternoon after the (very late) night before. Having written on Tuesday about Northampton’s chances of success last night, and then seen, with increasing disbelief and joy, the events which unfolded, I really had to write an “after” piece, if for no other reason than to acknowledge just how gloriously, blissfully, fantastically wrong I was.

By now, you’ll know that we won. Just stop for a second. Northampton, 17th in League Two, with one league win to their credit so far this year, and with a talented squad, but one which was severely stretched by injuries to key performers last night, won away to Liverpool. They did. It actually happened.

Not only that, but, for long periods, we outplayed them. Liverpool had one shot on target in 90 minutes, and we had seven corners to their two in that period. At Anfield. It did happen.

Not only that, but after the pandemonium of celebrating two goals, and seeing the potential heartbreak of being pegged back late in extra time, the lads held their nerve to win the penalty shootout and send our 5,000 strong support (more than we get at home, incidentally) into total, justified, once in a lifetime, absolutely sopping wet but we don’t care, delirium.

A chasm in cost

This was an epic night, a probably never to be repeated experience. For large swathes of a 120-minute contest, Liverpool’s collection of fringe first team players and supposedly up and coming talent were outplayed, taught a footballing lesson even. Only when the lively Pacheco and Jovanovic sought to create on pacy breaks did they really threaten, and in only two periods, during the first quarter, and the last five minutes of extra time when victory was sniffed, did they appear likely to win.

Many high-profile journalists have written about Liverpool today, commenting on the demise of the club, the malaise surrounding it, the shocking legacy left by Rafa Benitez, and Roy Hodgson’s poor utilising of it, and questioning his team selection.

But the fact remains, the starting eleven fielded by the home side last night cost £31million, while Northampton’s consisted entirely of free transfers and loanees, included two products of the club’s youth team, and several who have tasted non-league football in the last five years.

Different class

Michael Jacobs, scorer of the second goal, at the Kop, at eighteen, spent time at Nuneaton last season, as did Kevin Thornton, whose probing and passing put the work of the “enigmatic” Lucas to shame.

Abdul Osman, scorer of that majestic winning penalty, which capped a career-defining night’s work in which he controlled the midfield, moving them forward as a unit and defending doggedly, was signed from Gretna, having been spotted playing for Maidenhead.

Best of all, Courtney Herbert, whose twists and turns embarrassed Mark Wilson even before he caused the chaos which induced the second goal, was signed last season from Long Buckby, of the United Counties League. How many of you knew there was a place called Long Buckby, let alone that it had a football team? Honestly? You couldn’t make it up.

Tip-top tactics

It doesn’t matter how you dress this up, it shouldn’t have happened, but it did, and as much as Hodgson and his team of flops will be criticised for it, Ian Sampson, Malcolm Crosby and their coaching team deserve plenty of credit today.

Wins like this do indeed come around once in a lifetime, but this was no fluke. Tactically, the mobility of the five in midfield, their adaptability and workrate, was too much for Lucas and his partner Jay Spearing, who were pulled around the park on numerous occasions as they were outnumbered and outmanoeuvred.

The number of times Osman, and latterly substitute Nathaniel Wedderburn, found space in the middle of the park to pass the ball out wide to the wide quartet of John Johnson, Liam Davis, Paul Rodgers and Michael Jacobs, was indicative of Sampson and Crosby outthinking the stubborn but usually-astute Hodgson.

Kevin Thornton’s link-up with Billy Mckay, both of whom are not of great stature, seemed to befuddle Liverpool’s defensive axis of Daniel Agger and Sotirios Kyriakos. Watching the team grow in confidence as they stroked the ball around the lush Anfield turf, and their total commitment to the cause, typified by Andy Holt’s finest hour in a Cobblers shirt, and a splendid display from loan debutant Ben Tozer, I was proud to call this team my team.

Boom time

Certainly I never thought a win was attainable, as you would see from my previous post, but here was a team united, working for one another, and with skill and creativity aplenty to go with it.

The game could have been won in 90 minutes, just as it could in extra time, and the courage shown by the quintet of penalty takers at the end was almost superhuman. The scenes of celebration between players, staff and supporters at the end almost brought a tear to the eye, a display of incredulous unity which will live long in the memory.

Just as this was a horrific night for Liverpool, and clearly showed why the depth is not there for that great club to challenge English football’s upper echelons over the next few years, so this was a historic night for Northampton Town. A night to say “I was there”. Even my dad danced about at the end. That never happens.

Summing up

In the cold light of the glorious following day, some final points.

Firstly, League Two, while a very average league, contains a lot of quality. The reason players play at this level, often, is not through a lack of quality, but consistency. When things click into gear, even the most mighty of mighty (or previously most mighty of mighty) can be made to topple.

Secondly, there is nothing like watching your team, whatever level at which they play, win a game completely unexpectedly, and in such dramatic fashion. This is the beauty of lower league football, that the possibility of nights such as this even exists at all, and that it wonderfully, magisterially comes to pass once in a generation, or even in a lifetime. You can keep your Premier League.

Thirdly, it shouldn’t be underestimated what a fillip this might provide to our club, and even to the area. There’s already been much discussion of the financial ramifications of last night’s game, which appears to have enabled the club to break even this season, quite an achievement.

The road ahead

More than this, the press response to the game might induce a few more spectators to Sixfields, giving momentum to the team. On a wider point, people in the town centre were even smiling this morning. This is unusual!

And now what? Well, on Saturday comes the draw for round four. Another big draw would be lovely, but let’s not be greedy. Of course, there’s the small matter of Bradford at home, followed next Tuesday by the visit of Chesterfield to contend with now.

But whatever happens in the rest of this season, the events of September 22nd 2010 will forever be etched in the annals of Northampton Town.

An incredible story, an incredible night.

Northampton Town's big night out

To Liverpool supporters, even the most respectful, this week’s encounter with Northampton Town is perhaps just a fairly uninspiring home cup tie with lower-league fodder. To Cobblers fans, it is a rare luxurious break from the monotonous grind of League Two. Haydon Spenceley gives an insight into the mood among the Northampton support ahead of their most high-profile match for years.

So, tomorrow night (or, more than likely by the time you read this tonight, yesterday, the day before yesterday or one day last week) my team, Northampton Town, will find themselves stepping out on to the turf of Anfield to face Liverpool in a Carling Cup Third Round tie.

Unquestionably a plum tie, probably among the most interesting of the round, and inexplicably overlooked for TV coverage (we could have done with the money, just like every other team below 8th in the Premier League) the game is an all-too-rare opportunity for I, and circa 5,000 other Cobblers fans, to see our boys pit their wits against one of English football’s greats.

Liverpool will, I state with almost complete certainty, win, and win handsomely. Northampton Town and their fans, both ardent and fair-weather, may well return to the Midlands with their tails between their legs on the back of a severe hiding.

Even so, I should be excited, no? Or at least more excited than I feel on the eve of the big event.

You see, Town have done exceptionally to reach round three, having already dispatched Brighton at home (I shall enjoy the memory of a perplexed Gus Poyet watching his team as they were cut to shreds by our bunch of mediocre misfits for a long time) and away to Championship Reading, in both games playing our best football of the season.

As such, the players and staff, as well as their bank manager, richly deserve the opportunity afforded to them by tomorrow’s game. The trouble is, in virtually every other game this season, the heights reached in the league cup have seemed but a distant mirage.

One league win, against a very poor Southend side, several uninspiring, backs-to-the-wall draws, and a couple of chagrin-inducing defeats away to Torquay and Shrewsbury, as well as a senseless drubbing at Hartlepool, in the laughably-regional JPT, have been our lot so far.

In those games, regular watchers have been able to pick out the following tidbits of information about our merry band of blokes (call it a scouting report):

1. We actually aren’t all that good
2. We have so few defenders that, at Shrewsbury, a converted left winger, and a converted centre forward started together at centre half. The latter, Seb Harris, on debut, was substituted before half time. This was shoddy man management, but a decent football decision. It precipitated today’s signing of Ben Tozer from Newcastle. But will he stop Torres/Kuyt/N’Gog/Pacheco or whoever else is played up front tomorrow?Well, okay, probably Fernando is the only one who we should be truly worried about, but the lack of defensive, well, quality, is somewhat worrying, and will be our undoing over the course of the league season. Liam Davis’ recent conversion to left back has been a success story, and his runs from deep might pose some problems, if only he could do something at the end of them.
3. In midfield, we are over-stocked with strong, hard-working players, except they don’t work hard. Isn’t hard-working just a shorthand version of average? Thought so. Anyway, despite all the evidence pointing to our best bet being to play three in the centre, this only happens every so often.Shockingly, we often play better in this formation. More shockingly still, there is no guarantee that this will mean that the tactic will be employed the following week. As with much of League Two, the need for the ability to pass appears to have been overlooked by those scouting our players, apart from Kevin Thornton, who passes beautifully, as well as creating set-pieces, and enjoying games where he does not have to tackle or be tackled. On that basis, I have high hopes for him to outplay Gerrard tomorrow.
4. With Michael Jacobs looking alternately like Pele and a rabbit in headlights in his first-full season, but showing the potential which will see him in the Championship at least before too long, and Billy McKay on the wings, and the recently signed Leon Mckenzie up top, we have decent options (or at least better than they were a couple of weeks ago). In the unlikely event of us actually getting the ball, there is enough creativity and firepower there to spring a surprise.

If I sound defeatist, even disparaging, it is because that’s how the start to the season has made me feel. Northampton are a team on a budget, for whom a tie such as Liverpool away may well, as Ian Sampson, our novice manager has stated recently, be a once in a lifetime experience.

For this reason I will go gladly and proudly up north. However, after a strong period during the middle of the last decade, a combination of short-sightedness on the part of the local government to deny progress to redevelopment, a couple of poor managerial appointments (including, possibly, the current one) and a spot of necessary financial belt-tightening has seen us drop from a very decent League One side 3 years ago, featuring several players now plying their trade in Leagues above ours, to being a very average League Two side, in a very average League Two.

Whatever the result tomorrow, as I arrive at Anfield, I will savour the moment and try and take in every last drop of it. It may very well be a long time before my team is there again.

Can League Two produce another Martin O'Neil?

With the news of Martin O’Neill’s resignation as manager of Aston Villa still smouldering as it burns off the presses, one of the summer’s more surprising managerial developments has come to pass. While Villa are obviously outside the scope of this august publication, a comment made by Richard Bevan of the LMA has caught my attention. Bevan is quoted as follows in relation to O’Neill’s departure:

“He is a great example to all aspiring managers, having built the foundations in non-league football to then go on to successfully manage at the highest level in the game.”

So how many of the current crop of managers in the lower echelons of the English domestic game have the potential, or ambition, or even the wherewithal, to achieve what O’Neill has, in making himself one of the bastions of club management in this country over the last two decades?

Clough but not enough

Many have, in recent times, attempted similar career trajectories as that followed by the bespectacled Northern Irishman. Perhaps the best contemporary example is Nigel Clough, currently bedding down at Derby having worked wonders at Burton Albion, in a similar fashion to O’Neill’s opening gambit at Wycombe in the early nineties.

Whereas Clough junior will more than likely remain forever in the shadow of his father, who managed O’Neill at Nottingham Forest, the work he is quietly undertaking at Pride Park gives rise to the thought that he may well make the step up to the Premier League one day. He may in fact be able to do so with real confidence, based on experiences at the sharp end of English football.

However, for every Clough, there’s a Tony Adams. For every Lee Clark, there’s a Steve Claridge. So, what of those operating in League Two these days?

The stalwarts

League Two managers at the start of the 2010/11 season can broadly be split in to three categories. Residing in the first, men such as Sammy McIlroy at Morecambe, the evergreen Dario Gradi at Crewe, Graham Turner, having swapped Hereford for Shrewsbury, Bradford’s Peter Taylor, Ronnie Moore of Rotherham, newly-promoted Stevenage’s Graham Westley and John Coleman, boss at Accrington.

These managers have years of experience, wily nous gleaned from many years at all levels of the English game. All, to one extent or another, offer fine examples for young up and comers to follow, particularly in the case of Coleman, Gradi and McIlroy in how to operate on a budget tighter than last year’s funkiest jeans.

These are not men that clubs higher up the ladder will turn to when looking to fill forthcoming vacancies, but their wisdom will ensure that their teams are as organised and effective as they conceivably can be this season.

The pretenders

In category two, we locate a plethora of middling men, some of whom may make the step up to League One or the Championship, but who, in the main, will more than likely be plying their trade in the bottom two divisions for a while yet.

Any number of names could find it’s way in to this list, but I would surmise that Ian Sampson at Northampton, Bury’s Alan Knill, Mark Stimson at Barnet, Chris Wilder of Oxford, Burton boss Paul Peschisolido and Paul Simpson, newly installed at Stockport, as well as a good few others, could find themselves wandering around the lower leagues, without ever really making that big step up.

Many of these managers have had a crack at the big leagues before, without distinction, dropping down to refresh and renew their careers for another stab at glory, while men such as Sampson and Knill are men dedicated to their clubs and largely loved by their supporters for their passion and loyalty.

Don’t be surprised if any of the bright, young-ish managers here lead a successful promotion campaign this season and are mentioned when one of the Seventy Two’s leading lights has a dip in form and needs a managerial makeover. All of these managers are capable men, with the acumen needed to build and sustain a successful squad, but few of them have the proven ability to manage big names or budgets and it would be a surprise if many of them ever get the opportunity to try.

Buckle knuckles down

Finally, we reach the final in our arbitrary trio of categories: those who, it appears, have all that might be required to make the step up, following in O’Neill’s footsteps.

The first suggestion is Paul Buckle, who, in his quietly unassuming and efficient way has transformed the fortunes of unfashionable Torquay United, turning them in to a team with the winning habit, and a pleasingly attractive and yet functional way of maximising players of limited but focused abilities in to a genuine outside bet for promotion this season.

Buckle ruthlessly reshaped his squad in January, jettisoning popular players such as Chris Hargreaves and Tim Sills, in favour of younger, more energetic and pacy players such as Chris Zebroski. The results reaped both in the final third of last season and at the start of this one indicate a manager who knows how to work within his limits, encourage and mould individuals into a team, and work astutely enough tactically to win plenty of games.

It would be a surprise if Buckle is not plying his trade at a higher level before too long. Whether he has it in him to make it all the way to the top six of the English game might well be another matter, but he certainly appears to be League Two’s best chance at this moment in time.

Names in the frame

Others, such as Micky Adams at Port Vale, and John Sheridan at Chesterfield are rebuilding their careers successfully, and can be expected to progress, whether with their current employers or at pastures new, over the coming seasons.

Neither of these men have the potential of Buckle, but Adams’ work at Vale Park last season, morphing a poor side into genuine promotion contenders, beggared belief. Sheridan too moulded a decent side at Saltergate, and with the new ground factor this year, Chesterfield can be expected to be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.

If either attain promotion this year, expect covetous glances from chairmen in the lower reaches of the Championship.

Gillingham’s genius

Finally, we come to Andy Hessenthaler, newly reacquainted with the Priestfield faithful at Gillingham after a wondrously victorious time in the non-league at Dover, where his charges achieved promotion after promotion.

The way Hessenthaler and his chairman, Paul Scally, have gone about re-tooling the Gills’ squad for this season makes them strong favourites for promotion, and with Hessenthaler at the helm, this is doubly so. Well-liked and talented, he is a man with a winning mentality, momentum, and the will for success which was so crucial to Martin O’Neill’s early successes at Adams Park.

Whether he has what it takes to go all the way in the managerial game will more than likely be a mixture of talent, good fortune, and being in the right place at the right time, but of all the twenty-four managers in League Two at the start of this potentially fascinating campaign, Hessenthaler is the one with the credentials and history most similar to O’Neill’s. It will be interesting to see if the football gods smile upon him as they have the now ex-Villa boss.

While the premise of this article may appear somewhat far-fetched, the idea that either Paul Buckle or Andy Hessenthaler, particularly, may follow Martin O’Neill to the top of the game in England isn’t as preposterous as all that.

After all, when Wycombe were promoted to the league back in 1991, who would have thought that, nineteen years later, we would be talking in this way about their manager? Sure, a lot has changed since then, and the dispiriting lack of quality in English managers and coaches has led to a surfeit of opportunity for the best on offer to rise to the top, but it is not impossible.

As Richard Bevan said this afternoon, it is only to be hoped that managers in League Two see Martin O’Neill as a shining example to aspire to follow rather than the exception to the rule.

Class of 2010 ready for League One challenge

Notts County

The last twelve months in the life of Notts County have been nothing if not tumultuous. While none of us need to read (or write) another rundown of all the events which transpired during the 2009/2010 season at Meadow Lane, it is probably fair to suggest that, given all that did occur last season, the club, their new chairman Ray Trew, new manager Craig Short and supporters are more than likely quite glad to be gearing up for an assault on Npower League One. But what of their chances?

It has to be said that, of all of the teams promoted from League Two last season, Notts have prepared most impressively for life in their new surroundings. The Magpies have strengthened well, it seems, in every area of the team.

Goalkeeper Rob Burch comes in from Lincoln, the highly impressive signings of Liam Chilvers, Krystian Pearce and Jon Harley will solidify the back four, John Spicer adds some creativity in the middle of the park and the bearded beanpole Ben Burgess adds to the already well-stocked squad. It seems fair to see Notts as better than outsiders for promotion.

One of the key questions for Magpies fans is how former fans’ favourite Craig Short will settle in as manager, having finished his brief tenure at Ferencvaros. Some decent pre-season results and sensible shaping of his squad suggest that the good times may well continue to roll at Meadow Lane, with or without the millions initially promised through the ill-fated Munto Finance deal.

One thing’s for sure, it is unlikely to be boring.

It's been too quiet

I haven't posted here for ages. I've been busy. Working, writing about music, football, God, disability, writing music, and getting ready to make a record in Nashville (and one in Southampton too). So it's been pretty hectic. Also, with getting accepted to train for ordination as a minister in the Church of England (mad, I know) there's been some changes in life!

Anyways, thought I'd better post a few things I've written recently, so the following posts are my most recent published work. Enjoy. I'll be reviewing some brilliant new records here soon too...