Self-critical Cobblers ‘deserved all three points’ from Magpies stalemate

Daniel Powell takes the plaudits after bringing the Cobblers level at Meadow Lane on Saturday. Picture: Pete Norton

Powell was on target a minute before half-time at Meadow Lane when presented with a simple tap-in from Sam Hoskins’ cross-cum-shot, cancelling out Mitch Rose’s fine opener.

The 28-year-old also played a key role in the second goal when latching onto a short back pass and rounding Ryan Schofield, only to be taken out by the Magpies goalkeeper.

Schofield saw red and Hoskins blasted home the subsequent free-kick with the aid of a deflection but, like against Port Vale the previous weekend, Town again surrendered a strong position as Kane Hemmings earned County a point.

Powell felt it was an improvement on the previous Saturday though and the Cobblers played well enough to justify winning the game, especially given the amount of chances they squandered in the second-half.

“First of all I think it was better than last week because obviously we lost the game against 10 men but on Saturday we created a lot of chances - we just couldn’t put the ball into the net,” he said.

“I felt we deserved all three points but unfortunately we couldn’t put the ball away for the third goal.

“(Dean) Bowditch was put in from the free-kick and it was a crazy scramble. That’s something we’ve practised on in training and it worked perfectly but he couldn’t quite slide it past the goalkeeper.”

Powell admitted the Cobblers had done some soul-searching between their games against Port Vale and Notts County, partly due to manager Keith Curle’s heavy criticism of the players.

“We were always going to have a response,” he added. “After such a bad performance last week, we had to come out on Saturday and just perform well.

“I think we outfought them as well. We were critical of ourselves last week and people were saying we got out-fought but we outfought, outworked and outplayed Notts County but just couldn’t get the ball into the net.

“You saw on Saturday that they were fighting for their lives and we’re in mid-table but we were the better team and it was a good point for them.”