Clobbered by the Cobblers

OUT-THOUGHT last week, out-fought this - Burnley are facing up to the grim prospect of a bleak mid-winter.

A second successive relegation scrap is looming large on the horizon after another woeful display consigned the Clarets to their seventh defeat in their last eight outings.

The Turf Moor faithful who opted out of some last minute Christmas shopping turned up expecting a backlash after last weekend's mauling at promotion-chasing Fulham.

And although this defeat against the Cobblers was not as one-sided, in many ways it was worse.

At least against Kevin Keegan's men the Clarets came up against quality opposition.

This dour encounter was a contest between two poor sides and worryingly for Burnley they came off second best.

Apart from a first half effort which Andy Cooke screwed wide of the post and a second half Mark Ford cross-shot which came back off the bar there was precious little for the home fans to cheer.

Ian Atkins' men arrived with a reputation as the bully boys of Division Two so it was never going to be a classic.

And it became increasingly obvious as the game wore on that Burnley simply did not have enough about them to stamp any kind of authority upon the game.

There appears to be no pattern or method in the Clarets play at present and they ran out of ideas long before Paul Wilkinson nodded Northampton in front midway through the second half.

Certain players look lost and the lack of confidence is spreading through the rest of the team.

The constant changes in tactics and personnel certainly cannot help and the results are there for all to see. Midfield trio Mark Robertson, Mark Ford and Chris Brass did not possess the necessary craft to open up a stubborn Northampton rearguard.

Wing backs John O'Kane and Ally Pickering - who showed some neat touches in a sound debut - were not sure when they should be attacking or defending.

And strikers Andy Payton and Andy Cooke, who have been starved of support from midfield in the last few games, again looked like isolated figures up front.

Never at any point did the Clarets look like they were going for the jugular.

They were particularly toothless in an error strewn first half, when too many passes simply went astray.

In short, Burnley were too tentative and far too predictable.

They lacked invention, and perhaps more importantly, players who are capable of taking a game by the scruff of the neck.

It was all the more frustrating because Northampton were there for the taking.

Atkins, like Ternent, has a crippling injury list and his current side are not a shadow of the team which made the play-offs last season.

But in Ali Gibb and Duncan Spedding he did at least have two wide men capable of getting behind a defence and delivering a dangerous ball.

And that was the crucial difference.

The Clarets did not get enough quality service into the front two.

Both sides struggled in a wretched first half but the visitors looked the more threatening in the opening exchanges.

John Frain fired wildly over the bar from inside the box and Wilkinson twice went close with a header and a side-footer following crosses from the right. The script for the afternoon may have been different, however, had Cooke accepted a golden chance midway through the half.

Ford threaded a neat ball into the area, Cooke nipped it off Payton's toes but he screwed his snapshot agonisingly wide of the far post.

Northampton continued to have the better of it in an equally scrappy second half as a Carlo Corazzin shot flew over the bar and Wilkinson again missed the target after being put clear by Dave Savage.

Keeper Billy Turley tipped a Ford cross-shot onto the bar during Burnley's best spell.

But the Clarets survived another let off at the opposite end when Spedding cut in from the left and blasted high and wide.

The reprieve did not last long, though.

With 19 minutes to go Richard Hope knocked a hopeful ball into the box. Gordon Armstrong's header fell to James Hunt 20 yards out and although Paul Crichton touched his shot onto the bar, Wilkinson was on hand to nod in the rebound for his first of the season.

Worse was to come 11 minutes later.

Corazzin robbed Matt Heywood too easily out on the left, cut across the box and rounded Brian Reid before lashing an unstoppable drive past Crichton into the roof of the net.

As the Burnley fans made for the exits Cooke had a late chance to reduce the arrears but headed straight at Turley from a Kevin Henderson cross to sum up another miserable afternoon.

Ternent told supporters after last week's debacle they may have to 'grin and bear it' until the board can come up with the cash to bring in some new faces.

This was grim, and judging by the chorus of boos which greeted the final whistle, they are not prepared to wait that long.

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