Cheltenham Town 1 Northampton Town 0 – Save

What a save!

Cheltenham Town keeper Scott Brown produced a stunning low stop down to his left at full stretch to turn away striker Billy McKay’s shot in the 16th minute and effectively won the game for his side.

Nah, not really – a slight exaggeration - but in the car park after the game I promised Scott I’d give the save a mention on this blog and, after all, a promise is a promise.

In all seriousness, it was a decent save and Brown, his boss and his team mates will be delighted with back-to-back clean sheets on top of back-to-back wins.

My clipping from this morning's copy of The Sun

The Sun’s football website: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football

In fact the save came in a first half when Northampton looked to be the more threatening side – even after Dean Beckwith’s 22nd minute red card for stamping on Shaun Jeffers. The pair seemed to collide and Beckwith appeared to put his foot in after Jeffers had fallen to the floor.

Central defender Beckwith protested his innocence, but Jeffers said:

“It was a definite stamp, but fortunately it just left me winded.”

Cobblers boss Ian Sampson refused to condemn his man, but said:

“I haven’t seen the DVD yet, but if it was an accident we’ll appeal. If it wasn’t an accident, he’ll be in trouble.”

The sending off though seemed to stir Beckwith’s remaining team mates into a greater effort and Cheltenham did their best to help them by giving the ball away far too easily when it would have made more sense to play keep-ball and wear the opposition down.

Northampton have had a rough time of it since their memorable win in the League Cup at Anfield, but they showed they aren’t a team lacking in commitment even if luck has deserted them for the time being. But as someone once said, the harder you work the luckier you get, and the Northampton players are working hard enough for each other to see their luck change sooner rather than later.

Apart from the Gordon Banks type save (yawn) from Brown, Cheltenham’s defence coped well with Northampton in the first half and just needed to pose more questions of their own.

In the second half Yates brought on attack-minded Theo Lewis for skipper Michael Pook and his presence immediately had ten-man Northampton on the back foot. Pook hadn’t played badly, but he and David Bird seemed to be doing similar jobs. With Northampton a man light, it meant only one of them was needed in a predominantly defensive midfield role.

In the 60th minute the Robins showed what they can do when they put their collective minds to it.

Winger Josh Low picked the ball up and drifted infield before feeding striker Jeff Goulding on the edge of the box. Goulding deftly flicked the ball on and split the defence while Brian “Junior” Smikle was alive enough to pounce on the ball and knock it in from about 12 yards for his first goal in league football.

Smikle is a pleasant unassuming lad from Dudley who grew up a Baggie and he was delighted with his debut goal. He said:

“I’m over the moon. I’ve been waiting for it for a long time and I’m just happy it’s come, but getting the win was the biggest result of all. The gaffer moved me into the centre behind the front two and told me to run off Jeff and Shaun and I got lucky even though it was a great ball by Jeff to put me in. Hopefully I can just continue with my goals now I’ve started.

When I arrived I thought I’d get goals once I settled in and adjusted to the pace of League Two. It’s taken me a while, but I’m now off the mark.

I don’t know what my favourite position is at the moment because the gaffer has me palying here there and everywhere. I just happy to do what’s best for the team and wherever the gaffer puts me I’ll put 110% in to it.

It was a very hard game and to be fair to them they came at us even with ten men. They’re a decent team, but I thought we held firm towards the end and deserved our win.”

As the game drew to a close, Cheltenham were intent on clinging on to that one goal lead - which is understandable – but by doing so, ended up inviting the away side on to them again and, in the last few minutes, Northampton pressed for an equaliser with increasing desperation.

The final whistle couldn’t come soon enough for the home support and I think it’s fair to say that there was a touch relief as they drifted out of the ground.

Then again, Cheltenham are now in the play-off places and so none of the Whaddon Road faithful will worry too much about how the game was won … they’ll be merely grateful they were there on the day Scotty Brown made THAT save.