Northampton Town 2 Stoke City 1 - the match report
PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY
Saturday July 27th, 3.00pm
Sixfields
NORTHAMPTON TOWN 2
JJ Hooper 15
Ben Heneghan 49 og
STOKE CITY 1
Marcel Barrington 85
Attendance: 521
Cobblers: Matt Duke, Kevin Amankwaah (sub Tyler Reeve 89), Ben Tozer, Lee Collins, Joe Widdowson, Ian Morris (sub Ivan Toney 74), Gary Deegan (sub David Artell 74), Darren Carter (sub Ishmel Demontagnac 62), Josh Moreman (sub David Moyo 68), Roy O’Donovan (sub Danny Emerton 58), JJ Hooper (sub Claudio Dias 74).
Subs not used: Ben Heath, Connor Roberts.
Stoke: Dan Bauchmann, Kevin Gomez, Ben Glasgow, Charlie Ward, Alex Grant, Mason Watkins-Clark, Jermaine Pennant, Elliott Wheeler, James Alabi, Karim Rossi, James Campbell
Subs: Ben Heneghan, Dan Alcock, Fernando Quesada, Sam Westley, George Waring, Jack Nardiello, Kieran Monlouis, Curtis Strong, Marcel Barrington
Referee: Mr I Rathbone
Booked:
Cobblers: none
Stoke: none
Sent off:
Cobblers: none
Stoke: none
On a humid and sticky afternoon at Sixfields, the Cobblers welcomed the Stoke City Development Squad, who included Jermaine Pennant in their line up.
JJ Hooper opened the scoring on 15 minutes with his 5th goal of the pre-season campaign, reacting quickest to poke the ball over the line after goalkeeper Dan Bauchmann did well to parry a close range Ian Morris effort from a long Ben Tozer throw.
Hooper nearly doubled the Cobblers advantage on 24 minutes when his dipping volley had Bauchmann at full stretch to tip his goalbound effort just past the post.
Neat interplay on 36 minutes gave Gary Deegan the opportunity to run at the Stoke defence, and he cleverly played the ball inside to Darren Carter who delivered a crisp incisive pass to find Roy O’Donovan near the touchline. His deep cross was volleyed goalwards by Morris to draw a good save from Bauchmann.
Carter had to clear off the line from a corner at the other end in the final action of the first half.
The Cobblers doubled their lead on 49 minutes when Carter sent in another dangerous corner and under pressure from Lee Collins the ball connected with substitute Stoke defender Ben Heneghan on its way into the net.
Both sides had goalscoring opportunities during the final half hour, amongst a continual stream of substitutions, and it was Stoke substitute Marcel Barrington who wrapped up the scoring on 86 minutes with a quickly taken shot on the turn that nestled into the corner of the net to reduce the deficit as the Cobblers recorded a 2-1 win.
COBBLERS MATCH STATS (first half in brackets, match total out of brackets)
SHOTS ON TARGET: (4) 6
SHOTS OFF TARGET: (1) 4
CORNERS: (2) 9
FOULS: (5) 7
CAUGHT OFFSIDE: (1) 1
STOKE MATCH STATS (first half in brackets, match total out of brackets)
SHOTS ON TARGET: (6) 9
SHOTS OFF TARGET: (2) 3
CORNERS: (3) 8
FOULS: (6) 13
CAUGHT OFFSIDE: (2) 5
The above stats are recorded by club staff. The stats shown elsewhere on this page are recorded by the Press Association.
Next month we will be launching our official You Tube channel bringing you behind the scenes footage. You can see the Cobblers players walking out of the tunnel for the Stoke game as part of a sneak preview of the service below.