Look Out, There's a Monster Coming

Northampton 6 Crewe 2

Can't say that that was the best Tuesday night I've ever spent. Having won free tickets and coach travel in the Crewe ASi Christmas Raffle, I was looking forward to a first trip to Northampton in a long while. The last time I went there they were playing at the County Ground. The day started well with a couple of beers and lunch in the pub before boarding the coach. As is usual with the Sandbach Travelling Alex coach we stopped off at a pub on the way. In this case it was the Cherry Tree at Catthorpe. I settled in for a few pints of Ringwood's Boondoggle (very nice) but somehow got suckered into a game of dominoes. Serious dominoes with money on it and everything. Well, it was close but my partner and I just missed out in a tight best-of-three series. At one all and with both teams just needing one point to win, we were getting the hurry up as the coach was about to leave. A rushed last hand saw the opposition sneak home and take the money.
Worse was to come though. Much worse. For starters, the coach driver managed to miss the turn off the motorway to the stadium and then travelled another three miles before turning round, meaning we arrived at the ground  with about five minutes to spare. (Not sure why anyone was surprised tho - getting lost seems to be a regular occurrence on the Fordy fun bus.) I had to collect my tickets from the ticket office, so the late arrival wasn't ideal. Still, I picked them up and got into the ground in time for kick off. and Crewe promptly took the lead when the Cobblers keeper let AJ Leitch-Smith's effort squirm through his hands and into the net. If the ref had blown the whistle there and then it would have been a decent day. Unfortunately there was another 88 minutes to be played and things rapidly went downhill for the Alex.
The first came from some decent play by Northampton but Pat Ada unaccountably threw himself to the floor instead of marking Shaun Harrad and Harrad made the most of his opportunity from close range. Harrad then won a rather fortunate free-kick just outside the area. Rhys Taylor positioned his wall to cover the near post and then stood behind it, obscuring his view of the ball, which duly went in at the far post.  From one up, Crewe were two down in a matter of minutes. The rest of the half was much more even though as Crewe recovered their composure. Despite lacking the pace of Moore and Donaldson up front, Crewe were still creating chances with Miller providing the main threat. Miller it was who duly won a penalty shortly before half time. It was definitely a penalty, but his theatrical dive was a bit exaggerated to say the least. Westwood stepped up to take it, but his low penalty was too close to the keeper, who blocked it easily, and saw the rebound scrambled out for a corner. Crewe couldn't make the corner count either and within a minute Northampton had a corner of their own. Crewe have been vulnerable from the set-piece all season and Northampton's Beckwith had a free header to put Northampton 3-1 at the break.
If the calamitous defending in the first half had been galling, things turned simply embarrassing within three minutes of the restart. Barely a minute into the second half, Crewe got very caught out trying to play the offside trap against a Northampton free kick. Whilst it could be argued that at least three players were offside, the ball never went anywhere near any of them. Instead Holt, in yards of space and onside, took the ball into the area and slipped it past a hopelessly exposed Rhys Taylor.  Two minutes later, Westwood was dispossessed in the middle of the park and Osman ran twenty yards unchallenged before letting fly a shot into the top corner that Taylor had no chance with. Game over. From one up to five one down in about 35 minutes. Most of us were left shaking our heads in disbelief. The rest of the second half was a bit more even but clearly Northampton had taken their foot off the gas a bit. With Miller having gone off injured at half time, Crewe were lacking a cutting edge and were finding it difficult to create chances, although the forward line did look more threatening with the introduction of Powell and Sarcevic just after the 70 minute mark.  Northampton were really doing a lot either, but then they didn't have to - Crewe could be relied on to gift them another chance. and that chance duly arrived in the 80th minute. Northampton attacked down the right and rolled in a harmless looking cross. Bell, the covering player in the area, then slipped on his backside and the ball bobbled past him to McKay, who couldn't believe his luck, but made no mistake with his finish. The sixth goal was the cue for a lot of Crewe fans to head for the exits. Can't blame them but they did miss Sarcevic's debut goal for Crewe - a well-taken shot from the edge of the area after neat interplay with Grant.
In the end, it was embarrassing, but not because Crewe were thoroughly outplayed but because they gifted Northampton some seriously soft goals. All six of them were entirely avoidable, although given Crewe's weakness from corners at least one was inevitable. The penalty miss was also frustrating - Crewe must have missed more penalties than anyone else this season.
Got to put this result behind them though and hope that it really was just one of those days when everything that could go wrong did. We shall see how the side bounces back against a Rotherham team that managed to lose to crisis-stricken Port Vale on the same night Crewe were self-destructing against the Cobblers.  The bad omen for this though is that I'll be taking my Dad to the game and he hasn't seen Crewe win in nearly six years...