WILDER IS FUMING AT SHOWING
PLYMOUTH made needless hardwork of a winning situation against Northampton, prompting Pilgrims assistant boss Paul Wotton to hail the home side’s fighting spirit.
After bursting into a three-goal lead through efforts from Peter Hartley, Andy Kellett and Lewis Alessandra, it looked like the contest was over as early as the 63rd minute.
In fact, some home supporters opted to leave at that point, a decision which looked like being a bad one when goals from Ivan Toney and Stewart Murdoch ignited a Northampton comeback.
But it ultimately fell short and Plymouth collected three points which maintain their pursuit of League Two promotion.
And Pilgrims assistant manager Wotton praised the home side for their late efforts, saying: “At 3-0 you should never be thinking it’s game over and fair play to Northampton, they made a game of it.
“Injury time was a bit of a struggle and it’s a concentration thing but the bottom line is we’ve won away from home and it’s a good three points for us.”
Hartley headed in a Bobby Reid corner after just four minutes and Kellett made it two with a jinking run which left several defenders in his wake before Alessandra added a third.
It was, according to Wotton, a dream start for the visiting team.
“It was great for us with Peter’s header and Andy Kellett’s goal will be one of the goals of the season,” he said. “We thought we could play better at half-time, we wanted them to keep moving the ball and play simple and we knew that a cleansheet would win us the game.
“It was a good job Lewis scored the third one and we knew we’d be up against a big strong Northampton team in this game.
“We had to see a lot of crosses and long throws out and we dealt with them very well.
“You can’t always keep cleansheets and we’ve got the win in the end and it’s three valuable points for us.”
Northampton boss Chris Wilder was furious with the way his team performed and said he was the most angry he has ever been as a manager in the game’s first ten minutes.
“Its a real disappointing day for us and the last few minutes have papered over the cracks. There are some play- ers here who need to be moved on when their contracts expire,” he said.
“We wanted to get off to a positive start and get on the front foot. I selected an attacking side I might as well have said to the players go and start the game at 1-0 down.
“The first goal is a free header from a defender and my players didn’t take responsibility.
“We practice defending set-pieces in training but some players haven’t got the mental strength to do the job on a Saturday.
“I've never been more furious about an opening period of a game than I was here.”