Northampton cruise to a big victory, whilst leaving Buxton’s Burton wounded

Harry Smith’s double set Northampton Town up for a priceless three points with a 3-1 win against Burton Albion as The Brewers dropped to rock bottom in the League One table.  

With the home side struggling for form and without a win in 13 games coming into the game, they didn’t help themselves by giving away needless fouls in and around the box which cost them again this weekend similarly to last weekend against now top of the table Hull City. 

The Cobblers played a pretty perfect game as the away side in this fixture, with considerably lower possession and playing on the counter, boss Keith Curle got his side to master it expertly with two of the visitors goals coming against the run of play. 

Smith scored his first league goal of the season inside two minutes leaping like a salmon to head home Alan Sheehan’s inswinging free–kick as it was helped on by glancing Sam Hoskins header. 

Shortly after going one down The Yellow’s threw bodies forward and a couple of saves in quick succession from Jonathan Mitchell in goal for Northampton denied them the opportunity to equalise.  

The Town keeper then got a slight bit of luck when a deflection on Neal Eardley’s goal-bound free-kick allowed for the 25-year-old to catch it and clear the danger away.  

Buxton can’t be upset with his players performances as they gave their all and chased down every ball all game long, but they found it tough to click and make that final ball to try and test the Northampton defence to its fullest.  

Burton would have gone into half time wishing they weren’t a goal down, but keeping their heads held high as they were controlling the game possession-wise and attacking well, just struggling to create chances with poor final balls and lack of lethal threat up top. 

With the away team knowing they can create chances at the Burton end they would be looking for the same start to the second half as they had to the start of the first.  

The Albion manager took full advantage of the new five sub-rule in the EFL as of this weekend and he took off youngster Indiana Vassilev and Australian midfielder Ryan Edwards ahead of the second half as he looked to get some fresh legs on to try and conquer a comeback.  

Charlie Vernam made his return to the pitch after missing out in the previous four weeks with an injury to his knee, but as soon as he came onto the field he created a threat on the left-wing but also swapped to the right-hand side a few times.  

He created chances after coming on, but nobody could turn home his well worked crosses. The story of Burton’s life this season, not being clinical enough. Cobblers keeper Mitchell was doing well.  

It was wonderful game management from Curle as he set up Town exactly the way he would have wanted to from the off.  

Unfortunately for Buxton’s Brewers, they were caught on the counter as they lost possession of the ball just inside the opposition half as Jack Sowerby won the ball back and threaded a fantastic pass through to Smith who doubled the away sides lead against the run of play picking up his second of the game.

Frustrations started to get the better of Burton and they kept on giving away needless fouls, the game was scrappy and ended up with a total of 35 fouls between the two teams, Albion’s most in one game this season. 

Things only got better for Northampton as they made it 3-0 ending the game right there. Substitute Chris Lines smashed the ball into the back of the net after a tenacious ball from Mark Marshall’s left foot to wrap up the victory for the visiting team.  

The closing stages forced more attacks from Burton, and they were running as if they weren’t 3-0 down and creating more plays whilst keeping hold of the ball, much to the disapproval from Keith Curle he gave his players a good old telling off from his technical area. 

In the dying embers of the game, there was a chance of a consolation when Fraser Horsfall handled needlessly inside the box, and as expected Lucas Akins slotted it past the goalkeeper to throw Northampton’s clean sheet out of the window. 

It finished 3-1 and that did not really show the true story of the game as Burton deserved more and Jake Buxton and his players will take positives from that game in hope that their fortunes will finally turn soon. Hoping they can get a much-needed result to give them some hope going forwards.  

However, a great win for Curle and his Cobblers side who rise in the table after a hard-fought victory against a never backing down Burton team.  

Albion host Charlton at the Pirelli in their next game as Northampton have another game on the road this time facing Rochdale up in the North West. 

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