Soccer: Blues' miserable run continues

Blues' latest Third Division blank at promotion-chasing Northampton Town's Sixfields Stadium means Blues have gone nearly nine hours without scoring a goal away from Roots Hall - a miserable run they never looked like ending at the weekend.

Northampton midfielder Dave Savage and debutant striker Jamie Forrester kept the Cobblers' hopes of an automatic promotion spot alive at Southend's expense, but in all honesty the Shrimpers made it so easy for their fourth placed hosts.

Southend's season is effectively over, with no relegation or promotion issues to contest, which left too many of their players going criminally through the motions at Northampton.

In fact, some of Blues' highly paid stars are more likely to put more effort into picking their summer holiday destinations than their last seven league games on this showing.

Although, the Shrimpers did enjoy a fair amount of the possession against their high-flying rivals, but lacked any ideas in the final third of the field, leaving forwards Martin Carruthers and Steve Jones frustrated spectators.

Southend's inability to get behind Northampton's defence was embarrassing to watch at times, as Blues reverted to a crab-like style of sideways and backwards football, which once again failed to get them anywhere near the whites of the opposition goal.

And on the rare occasions Southend did venture far enough forward to trouble the Cobblers' defence or win a free-kick on the edge of the opposition box, the Shrimpers' final ball or set-piece delivery was woeful.

The worst culprit being Scott Houghton, playing as an emergency left wing-back in the place of the suspended Nathan Jones.

Time and time again he crossed the ball straight into the grateful arms of home keeper Keith Welch, or failed to find a team-mate from a succession of free-kicks, leaving Blues' bewildered travelling fans wondering just what their heroes practice on the training ground all week.

Southend boss Alan Little has set his underachieving side an end of season target of 60 points and a top ten finish, which on this performance is just as outrageous as lingering talk of play-off pushes only a few weeks ago. In fact, Southend will be lucky to finish as high as the depressing 16th position they currently hold.

Against the Cobblers, Little made three changes to the team which drew 0-0 at Hull City midweek, handing young right wing-back Garry Cross a rare start and recalling Houghton, plus central midfielder Kevin Maher, to his First team fold.

Mel Capleton took his place in goal, fronted by a five-man rearguard of central defenders, skipper Simon Coleman, Rob Newman and David Morley, alongside wing-backs Cross and Houghton.

The midfield three were Maher, Tinkler and Scotsman Gordon Connelly, another player who flattered to deceive as he failed to get involved and looked a pace behind the proceedings.

And Carruthers and Jones led Blues' powder-puff attack, but had more chance of picking out the winning National Lottery numbers between themselves than finding the back of the net during an impotent 90 minutes.

However, getting forward was the last thing on Southend's mind during the opening exchanges as Northampton started the match at full throttle, creating three golden opportunities during the first six minutes.

Straight from the kick-off Canadian hitman Carlo Corazzin out-jumped Newman and found Forrester, who unleashed a vicious first time volley from 16-yards, which Capleton matched with a breathtaking one-handed save after just 15 seconds.

And four minutes later Forrester, who made five First Division appearances for Blues in 1994 after moving to Roots Hall on loan from Leeds United, was causing the Seasiders' wobbling rearguard more problems as he caught Cross and Morley napping.

The diminutive forward put Southend's defensive duo out of the game with a smart pass, which released Duncan Spedding down the left-flank to cut inside the Shrimpers' box and pull the ball back for an unmarked Corazzin, whose weak six-yard effort was straight at Capleton.

Then within another 60 seconds, Northampton were denied again as home captain John Frain's right-wing corner was headed goalward by Savage, but headed away from under the Southend crossbar by Houghton.

After weathering the early storm, Blues began to calm the game down, but the Seasiders played their best football inside their own half, which made life comfortable for their untroubled hosts.

However, Tinkler strived to launch Southend raids from the centre of the pitch and put Houghton away down the left-hand side with a superb pass on 15 minutes.

But Houghton lacked composure and hit an awful high centre which was easy meat for Welch, as Carruthers and Jones screamed out for a cross into the six-yard box.

Ten minutes later, Newman launched a long-punt forward which was cleared away from Jones to Connelly, who made room for himself and hit a shot from the edge of the box, but his effort lacked power and failed to test Welch.

And soon after, Houghton finally managed to find a Southend shirt with a left-wing cross, which Jones headed wide of the right post.

But Southend's limited efforts were to no avail as Northampton finally got the goal they had threatened on numerous occasions after 27 minutes as Blues were caught dosing in the Sixfields sunshine.

Cobblers full-back Garry Hughes smashed a routine long-ball down the right channel to Savage, who swept past a startled Morley into the Southend penalty area and beat a suspect looking Capleton with a low shot across the Shrimpers keeper from 16-yards.

However, Southend created a gem of a chance on 36 minutes, their best of the afternoon, which only Connelly will know how he missed, as it had looked easier to score.

Northampton defender Richard Green allowed a flicked header from Carruthers to bounce, giving Jones the opportunity to motor into the box under pressure from home stopper Ian Sampson, whose challenge spilled the ball into Connelly's path, but the Scotsman's puny effort failed to beat a grounded Welch from just ten-yards.

Frain ended the half hitting a shot wide of Capleton's left-hand post from 20-yards, before Southend emerged from the interval break with more urgency about their play.

Cross cut inside from the right-flank and tried an edge of the box shot which was blocked by Green's legs and Tinkler suffered the same fate after trying to finish off a mazey run from Carruthers, but Northampton's substitute midfielder Sean Parrish smothered the drive.

Corazzin, who top-scored in Canada's recent Gold Cup triumph, hit a 25-yard strike at Capleton after 54 minutes, just before Little made his first change, suprisingly opting to take off the hard working Maher in favour of Beard, who filled the left wing-back berth, pushing Houghton into midfield.

After 62 minutes, Houghton's left-wing centre was met on the volley by Cross, but didn't test Welch, and as Northampton began to claw back control of the proceedings, Forrester doubled the home side's advantage following a piece of individual magic.

Savage broke up a Southend attack on the right-wing after 71 minutes, allowing Forrester to belt forward unchallenged and make the most of a desperately back-pedalling Newman by hitting a sweet drive from 20-yards into the bottom left-hand corner of Blues' goal.

Seven minutes later, Savage nearly added a third goal as he skipped past a static Newman, but pulled his shot wide of the left-post from 18-yards, which resulted in further substitutions from Little.

Newman was handed an early reprieve from a couple of nightmare minutes, along with Coleman, making way for central defender Leo Roget and striker Trevor Fitzpatrick, with Southend switching to a 4-3-3 formation.

However, Blues failed to grab any consolation from their performance and both Roget and Morley were left making last ditch tackles on Northampton winger John Hodge and Savage respectively to keep the score respectable during the last few minutes.

Although, with Southend's chances of clocking up a first away win of the millennium long gone, Carruthers had a shot blocked in anger by Sampson three minutes from time, before Fitzpatrick and Houghton failed to trouble Welch with tame headers from good positions.

(Right) Thwarted - Northampton keeper Keith Welch denies Blues' striker Steve Jones, right, and midfielder Gordon Connelly

(Left) Blocked out - this Garry Cross effort is kept out by two Northampton defenders

(Below right) Deflated - young defender Garry Cross, who received a surprise first team recall at Northampton

Pictures: DAVE MONTIER

Match facts

Shots/headers on target: Northampton 6, Southend 6.

Corners: Northampton 5, Southend 1.

Bookings: Southend - Houghton (42mins - time-wasting), Beard (74mins - foul), Tinkler (90mins - foul). Northampton - Sampson (34mins - foul), Spedding (69mins ) foul

Southend United

(In 5-3-2 formation with ratings out of 10):

Capleton 6 - looked at fault for the first goal.

Cross 6 - hard game for the youngster, but didn't let himself down.

Coleman 6 - fairly competent display, but was constantly penalised for free-kicks and looked frustrated.

Connelly 5 - failed to get involved.

TINKLER 8 - the only Blues player capable of hitting a half decent forward pass.

Houghton 4 - played out of position, but saw plenty of the ball, without doing much with it, and his free-kick deliveries were very poor.

Steve Jones 5 - not fully fit and three games in a week have taken their toll.

Morley 7 - the pick of Southend's defence.

Maher 7 - another sound performance, but strangely replaced.

Newman 6 - didn't do a lot wrong, but should have cut out the second goal.

Carruthers 6 - a couple of strong runs summed up his afternoon.

Sub: Beard 6 - took over from Maher after 57 minutes to fill an uncustomary left-sided role.

Sub: Roget 6 - came on for Newman for last 11 minutes and looked strong.

Sub: Fitzpatrick 5 - entered the fray with 11 minutes left in place of Coleman.

Subs not used: McDonald and Pepper.

Northampton

Welch 6, Frain 6 (Parrish 7), Sampson 7, Savage 8, Hunt 7, Corazzin 6 (Howard 5), Hodge 6 (Hope 5), Hughes 7, FORRESTER 9, Spedding 6, Green 6. Subs not used: Morrow and O'Reilly.

Northampton Town (1) 2 (Savage 27, Forrester 71)

Southend United (0) 0

Attendance: 5,426.

Referee W Jordan (Tring) 5 out of 10

Next game:

Southend United

v York City

(Saturday, 3pm)

Other Division Three results

Barnet 0, Brighton 1

Chester 5, Mansfield 0

Exeter 1, Cheltenham 2

Hull 0, Darlington 1

Lincoln City 1, Halifax 1

Macclesfield 4, Shrewsbury 2

Northampton 2, Southend 0

Rochdale 3, Carlisle 2

Rotherham 1, Peterboro 1

Swansea 0, Leyton Orient 0

Torquay 0, Plymouth 4

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.