PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY
Thursday July 17th, 1800 BST

FC Kleve:  Muller, Akpidar, Garcalves, Behrend, Mahr, Urban, Dehnen, Braun, Podszus, Van Bergen, Davie.

Cobblers: Mark BUNN, Jason CROWE, Liam DAVIS (sub Alex DYER 74), Mark HUGHES, Gabor GYEPES, Chris DOIG (sub Liam DOLMAN 46), Ryan GILLIGAN, Abdul OSMAN, Colin LARKIN (sub Ian HENDERSON 72), Leon CONSTANTINE, Danny JACKMAN
Substitutes not used: Chris DUNN, Joe BENJAMIN, Ritchie JONES, Jon MARZETTI

The Cobblers rounded off their pre-season trip to Germany by playing hosts FC Kleve.

Pre-match heavy rain had just about eased by the time the game kicked off, and it was the Cobblers who came out of the traps first. On 9 minutes, Liam Davis cut in from the left hand side and sent in a goalbound shot, but his effort was blocked behind for a corner.

Moments later Mark Hughes went close, but his looping header was saved by the keeper. On 14 minutes, down the other end of the field, the home side had the lead when Chris Doig was adjudged to have upended Davie. The incident happened right on the edge of the penalty area, but the referee ruled that an offence had been committed and it was inside the box. Mahr stepped up to score.

The Cobblers continued to dominate however, and on 17 minutes they thought they had equalised. A Leon Constantine header from 12 yards beat the keeper and hit the cross bar. The ball bounced down onto the goal-line, the Cobblers boss and players appealed for the goal, claiming the ball had indeed crossed the line, but the assistant referee disagreed.

Constantine was close again on 40 minutes, meeting a dangerous cross from Colin Larkin with a header that was turned around the post, but in first half stoppage time the Cobblers deservedly levelled, Constantine scoring from the spot, sending the ball underneath the keeper.

Stuart Gray's side continued to dominate after the break, and on 51 minutes Danny Jackman met a deep Liam Davis cross with a header only for the keeper to make a good save.

Another Davis cross created an opening on 61 minutes, this time the header was from Colin Larkin but the ball was deflected behind.

The home keeper made a superb double save two minutes later. Ryan Gilligan played in Larkin, and the striker saw his shot well blocked by the keeper. As the ball ran loose the Kleve stopper recovered in time to block Gilligan's follow up.

The Cobblers were ahead on 74 minutes. Ian Henderson did well to round the keeper and then cut the ball back to give Jason Crowe the simplest of finishes from 6 yards.

The game was wrapped up in the final moments when Alex Dyer was in the right place to slot home after Ian Henderson's shot had been parried to give the final score a fairer indication of the Cobblers dominance.

FC KLEVE MATCH STATS (first half in brackets, match total out of brackets)
SHOTS ON TARGET: (1) 4
SHOTS OFF TARGET: (0) 1
CORNERS: (0) 0
FOULS: (10) 21
CAUGHT OFFSIDE: (1) 2

COBBLERS MATCH STATS (first half in brackets, match total out of brackets)
SHOTS ON TARGET: (6) 16
SHOTS OFF TARGET: (3) 6
CORNERS: (6) 8
FOULS: (12) 27
CAUGHT OFFSIDE: (2) 4