On the End of Errors

Argyle’s fellow promotion-chasers recorded a 2-1 victory at Home Park in a scrappy encounter that saw the Cobblers exact revenge on their hosts following the Greens’ 2-0 win at Sixfields earlier in the season.

 

“A game that had 0-0 written all over it,” said Derek. “On the night I thought it was a hard game. I didn’t think there was a lot of good football; we knew that was going to be the case.

 

“We’ve had two headers in the first half from corner kicks, and we should score – open goals. In the second half, we have a number of opportunities as well. If I’m being honest, 0-0 would’ve been right. That’s the way I saw it.”

 

Northampton fully capitalised on two uncharacteristic errors in Argyle’s back-line to put themselves in front. After 38 minutes, Kelvin Mellor’s under-hit back-pass saw Luke McCormick robbed on the ball by James Collins, who tapped into an empty net. Thirteen minutes after the break, a wayward clearance led to Marc Richards slotting in from close range.

 

“It was a bad pass-back,” said Derek about the first goal, “and Luke should’ve done better, so it was an error from both.”

 

As for the second, he said: “We’ve been a bit rash in how we’ve cleared the ball. We could’ve cleared it far better and been further up the park. We probably did that a number of times tonight, and gave them opportunities out of rash clearances. We didn’t clear the ball well enough.

 

“We make two errors to give them their two goals, but I don’t think they did anything else in the game. They’ve got a head start because of an error, and then in the second half we don’t clear our lines, and they get an opportunity. I know they had a couple of break-aways early in the second half, out of our bad play, but they didn’t really open us up in the 90 minutes.”

 

Derek’s side pulled one back seven minutes from time courtesy of substitute Gregg Wylde, but an inability to keep a cool on the ball throughout the game cost Argyle a deserved draw, in the eyes of the boss.

 

“It was good play down the sides,” said Adams on the goal. “In the first half we probably had a number of opportunities where we could’ve done the same. We didn’t, but it’s a good ball from Ryan Brunt and a good finish from Gregg.

 

“It becomes a wee bit difficult when you’re 2-0 down: sometimes you get a wee bit nervous and you want to get the ball forward quicker, and you don’t take that touch and the time that they do have.

 

“It was a scrappy encounter. We’ve probably had the majority of the chances in the game, but we didn’t take them.

 

“We’re obviously disappointed to lose the match, but I don’t think any team deserved to win the match.”