Northampton Town 2 Notts. County 0

Last updated : 26 March 2006 By Footymad Previewer
Northampton climbed back into the top three with this hard fought victory over County.

The Cobblers were forced to play the final forty minutes with 10 men after the sending off of their captain Sean Dyche for an awful challenge on striker Steve Scoffham who was stretchered from the field after referee Gary Lewis had shown Dyche the red card.

Northampton boss Colin Calderwood set great store by the depth of his squad and the fact that much travelled striker Jason Lee became the 17th player to score for the Cobblers this season. That tells you something about the numbers that are employed at Sixfields.

Lee opened the scoring six minutes before the break with the home sides first chance of the match. It arrived when an up and under by Dyche caught out the county defence and when Lee lobbed the ball over the on rushing Kevin Pilkington, the goalkeeper made contact but could only push the ball into the net.

County had only themselves to blame as they squandered five decent openings before that. As early as the second minute a pass by Chris Palmer to Scoffham ended with a fierce shot from the edge of the box which brought out the best in home goalkeeper Lee Harper who tipped the ball around the post.

Daniel Chillingworth will be disappointed with two chances which fell his way, the first of them a 14th minute header from a Palmer cross with which he failed to make sufficient contact, and then from close range when he mis queued badly after Brian O'Callaghan had headed the ball into his path.

In the second half County failed to cash in on their man advantage and Northampton came closer to extending their lead with central defender Chris Doig going close before man of the match Jamie Hand blazed over.

But they wrapped up the points in the 4th minute of injury time when Martin Smith's run and cross fell nicely into the path of substitute Josh Low who made no mistake from close range.