What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon; watching your team comfortably beat their opponents by playing "proper" football. The team worked hard for each other, played the simple ball most of the time, looked to support teammates and created a number of good chances. Northampton, in truth, never really offered much - they had a 10 minute spell after our second when they might have scored with a header at the back post but otherwise we looked very much the better team. I think there were 2 main reasons for this; firstly we had a real midfield - the new guy Kilkenny ran the show and was ably supported by Hughes, Prutton, Westlake (1st half) and Carole (2nd); secondly a properly functioning midfield makes it much easier for the defence, hence our back 5 had as comfortable an afternoon as any this season. Huntington looked great on the ball, happily slinging 30 or 40 yard balls out left and right, most of which found their man and swiftly put N'ton on the back foot. He read the game well and made timely interceptions - the doubts about him from yesteday's game are his strength in the challenge and how he'll cope under more serious and sustained pressure. What was so good about the midfield yesterday was that they functioned as a unit, moving, covering, making themselves available for passes, taking the option to keep the ball if nothing was on rather than just punting it long and hopefully forward, and biding their time. In short, the game went through them rather than over their heads. A good amount of the credit for all of this has to go to Kilkenny. Good attitude, good passing and vision, always talking to his team mates, letting them know where he was and where they should be! He's also not afraid of getting stuck in. Hughes was the all action tackling covering midfielder that we have needed for the last few weeks. He is undoubtedly limited but the team loses more than it gains by playing him at left back and someone else in the middle. Prutton and Westlake both had their moments but were more peripheral than the other two. What was nice to see was the fluid way that the middle 4 interchanged positions across the field without the team or the players losing their way. Fraser's goal came on the back of some more dodgy passing in the first half - he was so much better in the second when he had the confidence of the goal behind him - he picked up the ball more or less on half way went forward, past a man or two and just seemed to keep going because he couldn't see any better options. Got to the edge of the box, checked back inside another man, onto his right foot, and let fly. Bottom corner. Beautiful. The second half began with more pressure. Kilkenny came to take a corner at the Kop/West stand corner, got a great reception from the crowd, hit a fast moving curling corner beyond the crowd in the middle to where Hughes was storming in umarked at the back, he hit a first time volley which was going miles wide, but fortunately it flew straight to Rui's head who had enough presence of mind to redirect it goalwards. I don't think that there has been a more popular goalscorer for us all year. The rest of the half was taken up with Beckford somehow, incredibly not managing to score. He was being marked by 2 or 3 men each time he got the ball but yet he still managed to dance his way into the box and fire across goal, or just blaze past them and see a scorcher come back off the bar, or have some scrambled efforts cleared of the line...headers just fly over the bar...one of those days. And just to rub it in, Weston came on as a last minute sub, and scored with his only touch of the game. Latching onto the ball coming over the defence, he held off a defender and banged the ball home from 12 yards. Not just the three points and the clean sheet mattered today, but the style and the spirit was so much better. ANGKERGREN - composed but in truth not much to do RICHARDSON - shaky until that (great) goal, then much better PARKER - got lost a few times but did enough in terms of pushing forward to warrant a few more games. Looks worryingly one-paced MARQUES - outstanding again. Good luck to him in Africa but hell we could do with a swift return. He didn't put a foot wrong - got a rare goal - and got a standing ovation at the end which he acknowledged with a bow to the crowd...great stuff HUNTINGTON - a very good game (against unenterprising opponents) - composed on the ball, much better ball skills than most centre halfs, but I do worry about his strength. Time will tell. If he take this opportunity of Rui's absence he make well make a case for him to play alongside Rui in Heath's place PRUTTON - quiet but effective KILKENNY - really hope that this is the start of a beautiful friendship - top debut performance HUGHES - did what a Hughes does - tackled, tracked, covered ground, broke things up and cruicially didn't try and do too much with the ball, but instead gave it to Kilkenny... WESTLAKE - overshadowed by the others in midfield - but stepped in with good challenges when required - did he go off injured at half time or was it tactical? FLO - lasted 75 minutes - more than I expected - fair play to him - some classy touches - hardly ever got off the ground to go for headers - out of the game for long spells - I think it is worth DW persevering with him for a few games but mainly because Kandol has sunk so low rather than any intrinsic improvement from Flo - he's just the better option at the moment BECKFORD - live wire, nightmare - great to watch - no idea how he failed to score subs CAROLE - came on and gave greater balance to the team - made us more of a force going forward - stills runs up blind alleys and should release the ball earlier some times KANDOL - came on, put himself about a bit, little else really WESTON - 100% - one touch one goal - suspect Jermaine may not be talking to him tonight... all-in-all much more like it - a "proper" footballing performance...
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