Match Report: Northampton Town 1-1 Blues
Keshi Anderson's header cancels out Tomoki Iwata's own goal at League One leaders Blues are held at Sixfields.
Birmingham City couldn’t quite make it three wins in a week after being held to a draw at Northampton Town on Saturday.
The hosts took a deserved first half lead when Tomoki Iwata passed the ball into his own net as Blues continued to cause their own problems. Keshi Anderson equalised on the stroke of half-time and Blues improved in the second half but couldn’t quite find the killer moment.
Davies made one change from the side that beat Stevenage in midweek, bringing Keshi Anderson into the XI to replace Emil Hansson, who was withdrawn in midweek as a precaution. The Swede dropped to the bench in an otherwise unchanged 18.
Blues were a disaster in the first half, making error after error as Northampton capitalised.
The first notable effort came on 10 minutes when Mitch Pinnock, who scored the injury time equaliser at St.Andrews, volleyed across goal for Dara Costelloe to put over. Cameron McGeehan came close to lobbing Ryan Allsop from 30 yards. A mistake playing from the back allowed Terry Taylor to nip in for Costelloe to shoot narrowly over the bar and a free-kick from deep almost allowed McGeehan to score at the back post.
The goal was coming and when it did, it was a shocker. Blues played slowly from the back once more with Allsop playing into Iwata. His pass bobbled up on the turf and Iwata swung his left boot at the ball under pressure, knocking the ball into his own net off the far post.
It didn’t stop, a long throw headed clear to Max Dyche to fire over. A cross from the left was headed over by McGeehan and despite showing a little more in possession as the half went on, it almost got worse with Costelloe heading a free-kick wide and then forcing Allsop into a save after a poor Allsop goal kick.
Then out of nowhere, Blues equalised. A move involving 13 passes ended with Davies picking out Alfons Sampsted out wide. He played backwards to Christoph Klarer whose cross was perfect for the head of Anderson to head home emphatically and give Blues something to build on.
After an iffy opening minute, Blues completely controlled the second half.
It took ten minutes to create the first real opening, Anderson putting a loose ball over the top of the Northampton defence for Stansfield to run onto but his left footed poke went narrowly wide of the post.
The pressure continued. A nice move ended with Willum Willumson teeing up Tomoki Iwata to shoot from the edge of the box. Kieran Dowell had a free-kick that hit the wall and spun just wide of the far post and from the resulting corner, Alex Cochrane was able to volley into a defender.
The hosts weren’t completely out of it and showed their threat when defender Tyler Magloire headed over at the back post. Then came arguably Blues’ best chance of the game, Dowell’s delivery finding Willumson free but the Icelandic international jumped to head and ended up getting above the ball, failing to connect cleanly.
Another decent chance presented itself when Hansson was found over the top but he took too long to get the shot away. McGeehan cut back for Costelloe to have a tame effort on goal.
The final few minutes were all Blues but they couldn’t quite find the winner. Iwata played in Lukas Jutkiewicz whose effort was fired over the bar. May saw a cross deflected and just about clawed off the goal line by Lee Burge. Hansson’s teasing delivery just evaded Jutkiewicz and then Blues had two chances at the death, May and Paik Seung-Ho played in behind but unable to produce much with left-footed strikes.
Blues sit 12 points clear at the top with a game in-hand.
Lineups
Northampton: Burge; Magloire Dyche McGowan (Koiki 85); Odimayo (Eyoma 69) Perry (Hondermarck 77) Taylor Pinnock; Hoskins Costelloe McGeehan. Unused: Tzanev; Willis Fosu Wilson.
Blues: Allsop; Sampsted (Bielik 86) Klarer Davies Cochrane; Iwata Paik; Dowell Willumson (Jutkiewicz 82) Anderson (Hansson 62); Stansfield (May 82). Unused: Peacock-Farrell; Hanley Leonard.
Tactics
Same as normal, in principle, for Blues. A 4-2-3-1 with Sampsted (RB) and Anderson (LW) holding the width. Cochrane tucked inside. Paik and Dowell generally flanked Iwata to try and pull the Northampton midfield out of position. Willumson had license to float off Stansfield.
Northampton lined up in a 3-4-3 with Odimayo and Pinnock at wing-back while McGeehan and Hoskins flanked Costelloe in attack.
They were brave out of possession and followed what Bolton did excellently the other week. It wasn’t all man-for-man but largely about position, ensuring the back three stayed together as much as possible and keeping defensive lines together to ensure it was more difficult to break through. It meant that timing had to be right in terms of when and how they jumped onto Blues players.
What they tended to do in terms of the initial press was line up between players. Costelloe would watch Iwata but step on when the opportunity arose to close Davies or Allsop. McGeehan and Hoskins would stay narrow and close to him with all three quick to close the space together. And one midfielder would then step up and join in, particularly where Paik dropped in to support.
And then as the game progressed and they realised they had the beating of us, Odimayo and Pinnock started stepping up higher onto Sampsted and Cochrane, with Magloire pulling wide onto Anderson.
And so we got situations like this:
And this:
It led to Allsop beginning to go longer as the game progressed, both to avoid the pitch and also get through to half-time.
How did Blues get more control back in the game? Largely doing the same things were doing in the first half but with more efficiency and quality.
Iwata and Paik playing round the corner quicker and meeting the ball first. Klarer and Cochrane taking more risks in possession and stepping into space. Playing forward quicker rather taking the easier option. Finding players in pockets of space the other side of the press because we had the numbers advantage in midfield. Taking more risk in possession despite the awkward bounce of the ball at times meaning we would pass out of play or away from a team-mate.
Then towards the end of the game, we made the change to bring on Jutkiewicz and May for Stansfield and Willumson. I suspect this was as much to do with freshness as anything the other two had done, but it meant being able to go more direct. Unlike the other week, Jutkiewicz arrived onto the pitch as a meatier footballer compared to the Northampton centre-halves and was able to be played into. May, meanwhile, took on Willumson’s role of floating. But the two also played closer together.
One thing that did catch my eye was how much Willumson floated around the left-hand side. And in the second half, it became apparent that Anderson then Hansson were being tasked to use him and drift inside with Willumson being tackled by the wing-back and the winger drifting infield where the centre-back could be hesitant to step into.
Another thing in the second half was Paik and Iwata being braver out of possession and driving forward to take bodies away. Paik in particular was beginning to occupy the right-sided centre-back which opened up spaces down the side of defenders or out wide for the switch and opened up the game generally for Blues to step forward and play higher.
Northampton, as a result of Blues being braver and their own tiredness having put so much work into the game, sat in deeper but generally kept the front three close together so that they could break and do so at speed. Pinnock would get high quickly and they would look to use the space in behind Sampsted as a way of getting forward by switching play across Klarer.
Northampton made two positional changes:
Eyoma replaced Odimayo due to injury. Eyoma came on at LCB. McGowan moved to RWB.
Koiki replaced McGowan late on. Koiki came on at LW with Hoskins moving to RWB.
That last change was important as it gave Blues more space to play in behind with Hoskins more forward-thinking.
Players
An absolute honker of a first half showing remains in the memory more than the second but I’m here to try and address the full 90.
Here’s the thing. The first half showing was so bad I don’t really want to dig out individuals. We were too slow, too passive, lost almost every first and second contact, taking the easy option and not reading the bounce of the ball at all.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was Allsop, who is normally so assured but was caught on numerous occasions either playing short or kicking out of play when he is so accurate.
There are two players that stood out during that first half. The first is Dowell, who showed a willingness to receive and drive, particularly early doors. The second is Klarer, who took the bull by the horns by stepping into midfield with the ball. He played Sampsted in behind and later delivered the cross for the goal.
Second half was much better and the funny thing is, we played almost exactly the same way by drawing on Northampton but winning our aerial battles, winning our ground duels, playing quicker round the corner and finding team-mates in space behind the press. I thought Hansson was bright off the bench. I thought Paik, Dowell and Willumson took more control of the midfield.
For Northampton, it would similarly be easy to praise the whole team. However, I’ll pick out Ben Perry and Terry Taylor in midfield. They were so sharp to close down, win the ball or put Blues under pressure when trying to play out. And Cameron McGeehan is a player I have always liked.
Conclusions
On paper, it’s a crap point. In the circumstances of the game and the state of that first-half performance, I can stomach it.
If you want a summary of the change across both halves, here are the touch maps (Blues defensive area to the right, Northampton’s to the left).
First half:
Second half:
Clear issues penetrating down the right-hand side thorughout, something that will be a frustration given they had a winger playing at left-wing-back. But you can see the difference in how many more touches we had closer to the opposition goal in the second half.
As for the performance as a whole, I think a lot of people understandably put stock into the physical elements of the schedule we’ve just undertaken but as Davies keeps mentioning, it’s the mental side as much as anything. That first half performance gave the impression this group are mentally checked out as much as physically given the lack of concentration in so many actions.
I don’t mean to make that sound like they don’t care. Of course they do. But, to use something Davies has mentioned, when it’s hard to go again and again and again.
To lay out the numbers:
We have played 15 games in 51 days, a game every 3.4 days
We have played 30 games in 112 days, a game every 3.73 days
Of course they’re beaten up mentally and physically.
Yet it says plenty that we’ve come out of these 112 days having won 22 matches and reached the FA Cup Fourth Round, the EFL Trophy final and we sit 12 points clear at the top of the table.
Go enjoy your rest lads.
I wanted to dive into who had played what games and shared the numbers on Twitter - https://x.com/RyanDeeney2194/status/1901241122132811776,
Unsurprisingly, it’s the defensive players having the biggest workloads with Klarer and Davies playing 83% of minutes during that period, often only resting for lesser cup outings. Iwata started 23 matches while missing three due to injury. Paik Seung-Ho played in all 23 matches he was fit and available for.
But the MVP for me is Alex Cochrane who returned after Lee Buchanan’s season-ending injury and has played all but 4 minutes of the last 20 matches in all competitions, all played within 76 days of each other.
Could we have rotated more? It’s hard to say.
Ethan Laird became arguably our best player for our most intense period so we wheeled him out as much as possible. Alex Cochrane had to play every game because we’ve had no other option at left-back, assuming Myeung-Jae Lee is as far off as it appears fitness wise.
At centre-back, there’s a fair argument that Grant Hanley and Krystian Bielik could have played more. I guess the alternative argument is how often do managers swap out the spine of their team? With Christoph Klarer and Ben Davies not only performing to an excellent level, but the team also not conceding goals, Chris Davies can more than back himself.
In central midfield, we had the awkward situation of Tomoki Iwata and Paik Seung-Ho getting injured at the same time, so Marc Leonard and Taylor Gardner-Hickman stepped in. Then they got injured as the other two returned and when Gardner-Hickman returned, Laird was desperate for a rest and our wide options had disintegrated once more.
Further forward, it’s tough. We had a short spell where we had Dowell, Willumson, Wright, Anderson, Stansfield, Dykes and May all available and you could see that we were making changes to the starting XI or making earlier changes in games to freshen up. Then Stansfield got injured. Dykes, Wright and Anderson dropped that weekend. Hansson was a gradual return. All of a sudden, you’re flogging players. Luke Harris may raise his hand and suggest he could have played more but even he went down with a knock.
I guess when you’re not winning a football match or playing at your best, you can look with hindsight and suggest what could have been done. Maybe Leonard could have started yesterday. Maybe May could have started with Stansfield wider. Maybe Davies or Klarer could have been given a rest. But honestly, I’d have probably picked the same XI as Davies before the game and it is what it is. You can’t win them all.
Like the players and probably the management staff too, I’m looking forward to a couple of weeks off. I may catch the bug in the meantime, but I’m probably best off mentally checking out for a couple of weeks.
Have a good break. KRO.
Cheers Ryan,enjoy your rest!