FL2: Northampton v Torquay Utd 26 March 2011

In a game where we could enter the automatic promotion places we left at 1300 hrs. It beggars belief really. Apparently we had the team running across a motorway imtersection with their kit to catch the Cheltenham team bus.
It also seems faily astonishing that half our players were not on the bus in any case. I know we have a few loanees but for christ sake this sounds like a complete and utter shambles again.
It could only be Torquay couldn't it.

Haven't commented on here for a long time, but have been following events as a guest.

I was going to post on my return from last nights match as only live 25 miles away so was home by 11.15. However I was feeling pretty angry about the whole evening as so thought inappropriate to comment.

This morning I feel more relaxed, but still not very happy about the evenings result.

I hate going to sixfields as never seem to enjoy the ground and also have never seen us win there, the 1-0 victory during our promotion year I was on holiday and so missed it.

Have a great dislike for northampton and its club. As a previous poster put it they have a sort of arrogance about them. Let's face it any club that has to play on a Friday night because 5 times as many supporters want to watch 30 people chasing a funny shaped ball on the Saturday speaks volumes.

Anyway to the evenings events. It beggars belief that the team left at the time being quoted to travel up the M5 on a Friday!!!! When we come down for home games we leave at a very early time as the motorways are a nightmare.

So considering the players had a nighmare of a journey, had to play on Tuesday night whereas northampton hadn't played since Saturday the worse could have been expected.

A great start with a superb strike from O'Kane. But his was not the team I watched demolish Shrewsbury a couple of weeks ago.

The equaliser had looked on the cards as northampton gained in confidence and there number 21 some spanish guy was looking a danger.

The free kick leading to their equalizer was rather soft. Their players spent a great deal of time falling over at the slightest touch and a better referee would have yellow carded one of them and put a stop to it. The free kick was quite rightly retaken as the referee was have a word about pushing and shoving in the area, but did nothing about it. A poor goal to concede.

The rest of the half we hanging on as northampton were on the ascendancy. All relieved to hear the half time whistle.

We were better in the second half and created several chances which on another day would have gone in.

At ninety minutes I would have taken the draw. Enter Billy Kee with a top class finish which would have been shown time and again on Match of the Day. Couldn't believe that we were going to gain three points from an ordinairy performance. This is the kind of luck that brings promotion!!!!

From the kick off we were following the play waiting for the final whistle when the linesman is seen waving his flag like some child in the classroom waves his hand when desperate for the toilet, any teachers ao here will know what I mean.

Free kick for a reason we could not see. Rebound and an equaliser!! Totally deflated and angry. Mr Buckle was an angry man after the final whistle and confronted the officials after the game as did several players.

I left the ground feeling robbed of two points rather than being contented with one.

I know it is easy to blame officials but these ones had a bad night.

Hopefully will be down for the LIncoln game, 500 mile round trip in a day. We will leave early to avoid the traffic. Hopefully whoever organises the Torquay away travel will learn from this.

I don't like commenting on individual performances too much, but I thought Zebs ran his socks off tonight and Bevan made a couple of game saving stops but I wish he could kick better than he does. Plenty of effort all round but a few having an off day.

Still at least we are at the right end of the table and not worrying about relegation.

I wouldn't call it whinging but for me there are two important issues:

1. Coachgate - leaving so late for an important match was a big big mistake taking into consideration the other motorways and A roads that would have have been used to get to Northampton. What burk allowed the driver (I understand his name was Fred Karno) to use his alloted hours getting lost?

2. Why oh why can't we defend late corners, free kicks etc. The odd one I can understand but we are in the middle of an epidemic of biblical proportions.

As I've said before, the game starts when the ref blows his whistle for kick-off and finishes when he blows for time. The score is made up of the amount of goals put away in that time. When they are scored is irrelevant.

Last night, in the time allotted, Torquay scored two and Northampton scored two. A 2-2 draw.

A good result when you consider that, although they are near the bottom of the table, their home record isn't too bad, being on a par with Bury in second place and not far off are own and Wycombe's.

A good point gained...

well the morning after the night before,in hindsight i find it miraculous that we even gained a point after the days unexpected events,frustrating even more when we should of won.Total respect to cheltenham fc for their generous help,without that we would of incurred the anger of the football league again,who was the brainless idiot who suggested a 1pm departure? a very important game needed far better preparation than this for gods sake

Whilst I'm disappointed for the 370 that made it to the match last night I would definitely have taken a point at around 7pm when it became apparent that there had been such disruption to our pre-match build-up. I was hoping that Branston would get through without picking-up his tenth booking - I suppose that it is just something that comes with his no-nonsense approach.

It's been a demanding couple of weeks - three away games in eleven days. The players have three days off and then seven games to finish the season and everything is very much in their hands. I hope that last night has a galvanising effect on the players rather than damage their spirit and confidence - I think that will be apparent one way or another against Lincoln.

rugby maybe at franklin gardens chelston maybe policing