Ipswich's Tamas Priskin celebrates his goal in their 3-1 Carling Cup victory
AFTER seeing his side lose four out of their last
five games, prompting the admission that his job could be on the line,
Roy Keane found some relief in the Carling Cup last night.
After
despatching Championship side Reading, Northampton reached this fourth
round stage thanks to a famous penalty shoot-out Liverpool and were a
potential banana skin.
Cobblers boss Ian Sampson was certainly looking to go one better than he did last time Northampton were up against Keane.
Two
years ago Town were 2-0 up after just four minutes at the Stadium of
Light before Sunderland fought back to win on penalties.
Northampton
had to do without the suspended Dean Beckwith and John Johnson, while
Leon McKenzie, Tadhg Purcell and Courtney Herbert missed out through
injury.
The hosts were
without cup-tied Jack Colback and Jake Livermore, loanees from
Sunderland and Spurs respectively, while their young striker Connor
Wickham missed out after picking up an injury in training.
Northampton
got the ideal start on 16 minutes, when Kevin Thornton played a ball
into Liam Davis, who had taken up a midfield position.
The
full back turned away from the dithering Grant Leadbitter and his
30-yard shot took a deflection off defender Tommy Smith to loop over
the stranded Brian Murphy.
But the scent of another shock victory filled the Northampton nostrils for just 10 minutes before Ipswich found an equaliser.
Jason
Scotland played a low diagonal ball into Andros Townsend lurking on the
right and the Spurs loanee lashed in an angled shot across goalkeeper
Chris Dunn.
Scotland then
played in Tamas Priskin but the Hungarian’s low drive was too close to
Dunn, who got down and smothered the ball at the second attempt.
But Northampton are not second from bottom of League Two without reason and a minute before the break the hosts pounced again.
Although
Marcus Hall prevented Gareth McAuley reaching a Townsend corner, the
ball rolled kindly to Damien Delaney who lashed it home through the
crowded area.
McAuley later had a header turned around a post, while a long range effort from Jaime Peters was easily gathered.
Although the better side, Ipswich side struggled to press home their advantage until Priskin headed in two minutes from time.
Substitute
Ronan Murray might have extended the lead still further when he found
space in the penalty box, but this time Dunn was behind the effort.
For
the visitors, Ryan Gilligan did manage to hit a shot over the bar but
the Cobblers’ efforts were a scarcity in the second period as they
struggled to get out of their own half.
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