‘Match Preview: Coventry 1’s v Northampton 1’s: Clarke hits second hatrick as Piper, Drake and Scott return’
Northampton Men’s first team face a trip to local club Coventry and North Warwick on Saturday in their last pre-season match before the first league game. The two teams haven’t met each other competitively since the 2013-14 season after which Coventry were relegated from the Midlands Premier division.
Northampton take a record of two wins, a draw and one loss from their pre-season efforts so far.
As the group look to finish the encouraging pre-season with a win and confident display in Coventry, thoughts also turn to a strong start to the league a week later against Edgbaston.
Northampton go to the Coventry contest following a solid win at home to Stratford last weekend where the team won 4-2 with another whirling hatrick from Stuart Clark and a wonderful strike from speed king Nick Beattie. The match was a battling display from the visiting Stratford group that put up a stern test for a large squad of sixteen Northampton men. It also saw new players vie for places in defensive and attacking positions.
Nick Beattie put in an skillful performance and an impressive fourth goal
Veteran Northern Irish cool-head Davd Haggan demonstrated to the rest of the side how his improved fitness and calmness makes a difference to his personal contribution. Haggan played his longest number of first team minutes for two years and helped to create the third goal from deep within his own half.
Haggan reflected on the game afterwards “it’s been a long time since I had the legs and sharpness to play in midfield but I was happy with how it went. It certainly doesn’t get any easier the older you get but I’m determined to show the benefits of the fitness work I’ve put in over the summer. I hope it showed in more than just a few occasions.”
Head coach Christian Howard observed “the game was a timely reminder of what it takes to set up against a rugged defence and make the breakthroughs. As expected, the opposition gave us just what we needed, which was to recognise the remainder of pre-season is about focussing on fitness, personal standards with the ball and match awareness.”
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Team news
Madeley, Whorton, Beattie, Newsway, Drake, Parker (C), Arnold, Whittaker, Piper, Phillips, Lewington, Clark, Mahoney, Bentley, Scott
Saturday’s upcoming squad will welcome back defender Alex Piper and experienced midfielder Tom Drake, as Howard puts the final touches to the patterns of play and tactical set up.
Haggan missis out due to personal commitments but Ben Scott is in contention to make his second appearance for the club since returning from Khalsa.
“Strength in our squad is clear to see as we start to look towards the league” says Howard
“We want to give the guys enough chances to prove their fitness and bed them into a playing method that suits us”
“Sometimes it takes a few really decent individual performances to bring the rest of the squad up a notch in both training and games”
Howard is expecting the competition for places in the squad to raise the standards
Despite an unprecedented and encouraging large squad, the Northampton team will be refined ahead of the Coventry clash to ensure the players gets consistency ahead of Edgbaston.
“We head into this game with points to prove but high confidence after a really pleasing pre-season” concludes Howard.
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