LANDMARK WEEK ENDS ON A HIGH
NORTHAMPTON boss Chris Wilder is convinced the key to success was his players retaining their focus as victory over Yeovil ended a great week for the club.
The Cobblers’ future was secured on Thursday – two days after winning at Crawley – when Kelvin Thomas completed his takeover of the Sixfields club.
And Wilder’s men stayed in the automatic promotion places as goals from Lawson D’Ath and Marc Richards clinched a comfortable win over struggling Yeovil.
Wilder said: “We were tough on the players towards the end of the week because we had to get everyone focused on the task in hand.
“The players live in a world of social media and they all know what has been going on but Tuesday was impressive and we managed to get the job done here as well.
“Despite all the good news we’ve had this week, if we hadn’t have won the game today I would have been grumpy all weekend.
“We’re in football for that winning feeling. We’re on a good run now and things are going well but we’ve got to keep our focus.”
In contrast,Yeovil remain bottom of the table with defeat and are now without a win in 12 league games.
The run has led to fans calling for manager Paul Sturrock to be sacked, but he insists he is the man to lead them to safety.
He said: “I’m confident that I can turn things around and get us away from the relegation zone.
“If I didn’t think that, I would walk away but I’m not going to do that.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that a 12-game run without a win isn’t good but I believe in these players and we will stay up this season.
“We played a strong team who are near the top of the table and they were clinical and took their chances.
“We’ll keep working hard and I know we can turn it around. We’ve now got two weeks before our next league game and we’ll make sure all the players are ready.”
Yeovil wasted an early chance when Harry Cornick slipped after being put through by Josh Sheehan, but Northampton quickly showed why they’re challenging for promotion.
Richards came close with a header before former Yeovil loanee D’Ath put the Cobblers ahead on 35 minutes, latching onto a pass from Alfie Potter before rounding goalkeeper Chris Weale and tapping into the empty net.
After the break the home side made the three points safe, with Richards converting a cross from Nicky Adams from close range on 57 minutes to make it 2-0.
Yeovil briefly threatened when Ryan Dickson’s corner was cleared off the line by goalkeeper Adam Smith and Cornick headed the rebound against the crossbar.
But the Cobblers comfortably held on to end a dramatic week in their history with a well-earned victory.