Northampton Town v Portsmouth

Northampton Town v Portsmouth

SKY BET LEAGUE 2
Saturday December 19th, 3.00pm
Sixfields

NORTHAMPTON TOWN 1

Ryan Cresswell 17

PORTSMOUTH 2

Gareth Evans 32

Conor Chaplin 86

Attendance: 5,859 (938 away fans)

Cobblers: Adam Smith, Brendan Moloney, Zander Diamond (sub Sam Hoskins 88), Ryan Cresswell, David Buchanan, John-Joe O’Toole, Joel Byrom, Lawson D’Ath, Nicky Adams (sub Dominic Calvert-Lewin 57), Alfie Potter (sub Ricky Holmes 65), Marc Richards

Subs not used: Ryan Clarke, Josh Lelan, Rod McDonald, Jason Taylor

Portsmouth: Brian Murphy, Ben Davies, Enda Stevens, Adam Webster, Michael Doyle, Marc McNulty (sub Adam McGurk 80), Caolan Lavery (sub Conor Chaplin 85), Matt Clarke, Kyle Bennett (sub Ben Tollitt 76), Gareth Evans, Danny Hollands

Subs not used: Adam Barton, Ben Close, Alex Bass, Brandon Haunstrup

Referee: Mr F Graham

Booked:
Cobblers: John-Joe O'Toole (23, 6th of the season), Lawson D'Ath (36, 2nd), Ryan Cresswell (45, 5th)
Portsmouth: Mark McNulty (45), Adam McGurk (90)

10 cautions on or before 11 April; 2 match suspension

15 cautions at any time in season; 3 match suspension

Sent off:
Cobblers: none
Portsmouth: none

Sendings off: 2 cautions in one game; 1 match suspension but cautions do not count towards above totals. Other sendings off; 1 or 3 match suspension. Extra match ban for additional sendings off.

Portsmouth were the pre Christmas visitors to a sold out Sixfields as Chris Wilder took charge of Northampton Town for the 100th time. Wilder named an unchanged side while Enda Stevens, who had a brief loan spell at Sixfields in 2014, started for Pompey.

In front of a capacity crowd, the Cobblers started brightly with Portsmouth just managing to prevent Marc Richards from getting on the end of an early Joel Byrom cross.

Gareth Evans spurned a couple of half chances for Portsmouth before Richards drew an excellent save from Brian Murphy.

The Cobblers took the lead on 17 minutes, Byrom’s corner met by an unstoppable Ryan Cresswell header.

The game was being played at lightning pace and Richards just failed to connect with a Nicky Adams cross following another well-worked Cobblers set-piece.

Portsmouth equalised just after the half hour, a quick counter-attack leading to a Gareth Evans headed goal.

Adam Smith made a terrific save to deny Caolan Lavery as the frenetic action continued. Marc McNulty saw a header saved in first half stoppage time before both McNulty and Cresswell were booked.

After a quiet start to the second half, Dominic Calvert-Lewin came on for Nicky Adams in the Cobblers first change. Ricky Holmes then came on against his former club as Alfie Potter made way.

With the game still very much in the balance, Smith made a good save to turn a shot from Danny Hollands behind before coming out well to block McNulty.

Evans drove wide as Portsmouth continued to create chances while at the other end Brendan Moloney saw a shot deflected behind for a corner, from which John-Joe O’Toole headed over.

The Cobblers were really starting to up the ante as the game entered the final ten minutes and from another corner a Cresswell header flicked the angle of post and bar.

Having pushed forward the Cobblers were caught by a Pompey counter-attack on 86 minutes as substitute Conor Chaplin scored from close range to put Paul Cook’s side in front.

The woodwork again came to Pompey’s rescue as the game neared stoppage time, Calvert-Lewin’s header smacking the crossbar. The Cobblers continued to press forward in stoppage time but the away side held on to claim the three points and end Town’s seven-match winning run.

COBBLERS MATCH STATS (first half in brackets, match total out of brackets)

SHOTS ON TARGET: (3) 5
SHOTS OFF TARGET: (0) 4
CORNERS: (4) 10
FOULS: (7) 9
CAUGHT OFFSIDE: (1) 1

PORTSMOUTH MATCH STATS (first half in brackets, match total out of brackets)
SHOTS ON TARGET: (2) 6

SHOTS OFF TARGET: (2) 5
CORNERS: (0) 3
FOULS: (0) 3
CAUGHT OFFSIDE: (1) 3

The above stats are recorded by club staff. The stats shown elsewhere on this page are recorded by Opta

Match Reports