Burton 5-1 First Half Hammering Condemns Cobblers
Credit: Michael715 / shutterstock.com
The Brewers vs The Cobblers in the “Jobs only done by hipsters and old people” Derby. Hardly the most glamorous of ties on paper, but a massive game at the bottom end of League One. With the strength of some of the promoted sides and the looming threat of high-budget teams below them that could splash the January cash, every point on the board is crucial at this stage in the race to avoid the drop back to the fourth tier. Northampton travelled up to Burton with their bellies full of turkey hoping to put some clear air between themselves and relegation. The Brewers were more than aware that a loss at home to a relegation rival could spell disaster for their season as we approach the halfway point.
These sides finished up last season occupying the two positions above the dreaded relegation zone. Coming into a strong League One season with plenty of quality across the board and with the budget constraints on both of them seemingly tightening each year, many expected to find the pair of them in the bottom four this time around. While the sailing certainly hasn’t been plain, and they’re both well in the mix to go down with a lot of football to play, they’re currently sat in 15th and 16th respectively - three points and a game in hand clear of the drop zone. Not too shabby for teams you’d traditionally associate with the fourth tier, or even lower.
Burton and Northampton typify inconsistency. Both are capable of turning up and turning over a superior opponent on their day, and also equally likely to get rolled over at home against a team you’d fancy them to get a result against. Whichever way this result would swing would hinge on which versions of each team showed up. Right from kick off, Northampton decided to make it evident which side they’d sent to Burton.
Centre-half Conor McCarthy decided to disregard everything he’d been taught in Defending 101 and swung a lazy pass across the face of his own goal. Burton man Kyran Lofthouse reacted fasted and latched on to the loose ball just before being clipped by a poor challenge from Nesta Guinness-Walker. The referee immediately pointed to the spot while the Cobblers’ defenders were stood around wafting their arms trying to direct the blame at one another. While they were still arguing, Jake Beesley hammered home his penalty with aplomb to take his tally to 7 for the season. If Albion are going to stay up, they’ll need him to carry on providing the goals at the steady rate he is doing.
A deviation from the norm in this match, as Northampton’s defence managed to go a full twenty minutes without caving in on itself for no discernible reason. Right wing-back Sam Hoskins completely misjudged the flight of a Burton cross-field ball and ended up nudging it beautifully into the path of Jack Armer rather than clearing it. Armer’s shot was well saved by Ross Fitzsimons in the Northampton goal, only for the ball to fall to his colleague, centre-half Max Dyche. Dyche cleared the ball straight into an onrushing Burton player and it fell to Armer for a second bite of the cherry, no mistake this time. Burton had doubled their lead and, once again, it came from a late Christmas gift from their visitors. I know it’s impolite to turn up empty handed, but a bottle of red would’ve been fine.
A true defensive meltdown is never complete without a totally avoidable and inexplicable own goal, so it wasn’t long before Northampton handed Burton a third. Just five minutes after he’d provided the second goal, Max Dyche turned the ball into his own net to make it three. Dyche will be credited with the own goal, but you simply have to acknowledge the fantastic self-destructive work of his partner in crime Conor McCarthy. Burton launched a free-kick into the box that was met by Beesley, the chance initially looked dangerous before he miscued his shot under a bit of defensive pressure and the ball bounced harmlessly towards the ‘keeper. Fitzsimons came to collect, Dyche was on standby shielding the ball. And then, for reasons unbeknownst to anyone in attendance, McCarthy decided to attempt to clear it out of the area. His clearance made it a whole three inches before bouncing off of Dyche and looping into the Northampton net. If any of you have any elderly relatives that spent the Christmas period watching the classics and lamenting the loss of proper British slapstick comedy, sit them down in front of the highlights package for this game. I promise you they’ll love it.
For fans of calamities at the other end of the pitch, Northampton had you covered too. Midfielder Cameron McGeehan had a chance to make it 3-1 as a corner dropped to his feet. About two yards out and with the goal at his mercy, McGeehan crashed his shot off the underside of the bar. At this point, it clearly wasn’t going to be the Cobblers’ day. At least it wasn’t a long drive back for the fans. Silver linings.
Much to the dismay of Burton fans, McCarthy was withdrawn from the game after his nightmare display after just 38 minutes. To make it look even worse for him, Northampton scored a minute later. Former Brewer Terry Taylor’s corner was cleared straight back to him, he made no mistake with the second delivery and found the head of Tom Eaves to head home his fourth of the season and inject a bit of hope into his side. With nearly an hour of football left to play, there was no reason Northampton couldn’t get back into this game.
No reason except, of course, that Northampton just cannot defend. Keen to live up to his predecessor, McCarthy’s replacement Jack Burroughs failed to cut out a fairly routine cross from the right-hand side. This left Tyrese Shade in miles of space in the box with time to pick his spot and finish confidently to send his side into the break with a commanding 4-1 lead.
In case I’m not getting across just how bad this was for the visitors, Burton had scored just 6 goals at home prior to this game all season. In fact, I’ll let Northampton manger Kevin Nolan (yes, that one) do the talking. At half-time he substituted the remaining two starting centre-halves as well as Hoskins at wing-back. I’ve watched a lot of football, and seen some bad defensive showings, but I’ve never seen all three starting centre-backs and one of the wing-backs subbed off before the second half has even started before. The only man remaining from the original back five was Guinness-Walker, who gave away the penalty. A clumsy challenge or two was the least of Nolan’s worries.
Did it work? Well, sort of. They didn’t throw the ball into their own net any more, and probably edged the second-half on chances. That will happen when you’re left chasing the game through your own doing against an opponent that are comfortable in their lead and happy to hit you on the break. The fifth goal came from a lighting-fast breakaway from the Brewers, with seventeen year-old Sulyman Krubally the architect. As Northampton pushed forward, the ball was cleared and fell to the teenager. He played a perfectly weighted defence-splitting pass to Shade, who one again used the time and space offered to him to pick his spot and score his second of the match to put the seal on a perfect Boxing Day for the Brewers.
Fans at the Pirelli were growing tired of their team picking up impressive away wins and then backing them up with lacklustre and limp defeats in their home matches. If they can straighten out their home form, their relegation worries could be a thing of the past. Who knows, they could even be looking at that eight point gap to the play-offs with hopeful eyes. Lots to be hop-timistic about for the Brewers!
Northampton will be hoping that trouble isn’t brewing in their backline and that this was just a blip. They really were astonishingly bad, but at this stage in the season they’ve picked up some impressive wins and the league is packed so tightly it’s hard to judge anyone in this middle pack. Four points separate Barnsley in 9th and Rotherham in 21st still as we approach the new year and the halfway mark in the reason. For context, at this point last season if you were four points above 21st you’d be 18th, and the gap up to 9th was twelve points. With the standard being so level and everyone being able to disrupt each other, nobody is safe and even some traditionally big sides you’d expect to be fine will be looking over their shoulders at relegation if they don’t start to rapidly pick up wins.
For Northampton and Burton, it’s all about cobbling together enough points to get you over that dotted red line come May by any means necessary. A busy January window awaits and teams around them will have the financial muscles to flex to help brute force their way to safety, can both Burton and Northampton keep up with the chasing pack? Or will the early-season relegation odds be proved right as one, or both, of these sides sink to the fourth tier once again?