Cobblers held to opening day draw
Northampton Town 1 (Bowditch, 22), Lincoln City 1 (O'Connor, 2)
Dean Bowditch's effort was enough to claim a decent point for the Cobblers, as they drew 1-1 with promotion hopefuls Lincoln City.
In what was a disastrous start from the hosts, Lincoln took the lead after less than two minutes. Michael O'Connor was given far too much time on the edge of the box to power his effort past debutant Tim Erlandsson and gave the visitors the early lead.
Many supporters would have been forgiven for their frustrations, given the scenes of last campaign, however the goal seemed to spark Town into life as the character of the team was questioned early on. Perhaps showing an improvement in attitude from the side under Ryan Moore.
Daniel Powell's cut-back found the opposite winger Bowditch, who placed his shot home to equalise after 21 minutes. From that moment on, the game seemed to spark into another gear with both sides' creating chances and pushing for second.
So perhaps Michael Bostwick could be forgiven for his challenge on Bowditch, which prompted the referee Charles Breakspear to reach for a second yellow card and send off the Lincoln midfielder, despite much protest from the Imps dugout, in particular assistant manager Nicky Cowley.
Northampton looked to be the better side for the majority of the game, with Sam Slocombe being called into action from Matt Crooks' effort. The resulting rebound saw Daniel Powell cut the back back to Kevin Van Veen, who unfortunately couldn't control his effort past the Bristol Rovers loanee.
However, once substitute Aaron Pierre took down John Akinde, who seemed to be one-on-one with Tim Erlandsson and was subsequently sent off, equalling the numbers once again - the game balanced out and rightfully headed for a draw, with neither side being able to force their way past the opposition's goalkeeper for a second time.
Moore was pleased with the performance after the final whistle.
"The performance was strong, especially after the poor start. The boys were questioned early on and did well to bounce back. Lincoln are a tough side and I thought we outplayed them today and were perhaps unlucky not to score a second - on another day I thought we could have scored a couple more, in truth."
He also noted his disappointment in the sending off of Aaron Pierre.
"Aaron knows better. It was a poor decision from him and he was rightfully sent off. I've spoken with him already and he knows my position and that's that. He'll serve his suspension and then we'll see where we go from there. He's a terrific player and he'll certainly learn from this, no doubt."
Northampton XI: Erlandsson, Facey, Taylor (Pierre), Turnbull, Buchanan, Crooks, O'Toole, Kasim (Foley), Powell, Bowditch, Van Veen (Williams).
Unused substitutes: Coddington, Waters, Whaler, Odoffin
Lincoln XI: Slocombe, Eardley, Wharton, Shackell, Toffolo, Bostwick, O'Connor, Anderson (Gordon), Mensah (Frecklington), McCartan (Pett), Akinde
Unused substitutes: Vickers, Wilson, Rhead, Mitchell
Attendance: 6,614.
Replies
Justice: I was very impressive with the number of goals, although a large number of them came against incredibly weaker opponents.
