Greedy eyes cast a glance to top three
Methodical this win might have been, but the result is all that will matter for Ian Sampson and his Northampton Town players.
When each of them opens their newspaper this morning they will see the club's name above the dotted line and in the League Two play-off places with 10 games left.
They will be content with their seventh heaven, especially considering the side was 18th back in the dark days of November.
But despite the workmanlike nature of this result, there is a strong feeling they should aim higher.
Town are now just six points off third-placed Bury – who they still have to play at Sixfields – although realistically there is perhaps just the one automatic place up for grabs with Rochdale looking home and dry and Notts County in good form.
Maybe such an ambition is greedy. This team was beaten six times before the end of September, and even if they have only lost twice in their last 16 outings, that is a difficult setback to recover.
The most recent positive result was a victory over Darlington, a fourth straight win achieved courtesy of a first-half double salvo.
Billy McKay maybe should have had the hosts in front, turning sharply to produce a left-footed volley that Shane Redmond did well to smother at his near post.
But the breakthrough was not far away. John Johnson made space for himself with a good touch inside his own half and burst forward before a rolled pass into Alex Dyer.
Dyer then found Adebayo Akinfenwa in a huge amount of space, the big man rattling the underside of the crossbar with his shot and Johnson pushing McKay out of the way to get to the rebound first and lash it in.
It was Johnson's fourth goal of the season – a good return for a full-back but what's perhaps more impressive is that three of the four have come in open play.
It's a better return than all the other defenders combined and most of the midfield too, although Abdul Osman is catching him up.
The tenacious ball-winner got his second in a week and it came in similar circumstances to the one he opened his account with at Port Vale.
Darlington wanted a foul when keeper Redmond met the immovable object that is Akinfenwa on the goal-line, his clearance only falling as far as Osman who passed the ball into the unguarded net.
Jason Steele was forced into a double save, parrying Andrew Milne's tame effort from the edge of the box and doing well to collect under pressure from Josh Gray.
A goal at that stage would have created a few nerves around the ground but it never arrived.
The way this Northampton team is playing, they make you think that such lofty achievements can be met.
For now, they'll happily settle for a week in the play-off zone.
Greater things, though, may yet lie ahead.
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Weather for Kettering
Monday 13 February 2012
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