Northampton Shock Liverpool In Carling Cup

On Merseyside the Carling Cup
has provided a pint and a half
of humiliation.
If anyone at Anfield had taken
any pleasure from Everton's
humbling at Brentford, the
laughter was choked by a
performance that stank of a club
sleepwalking towards a crisis.
Like Everton, Liverpool were
forced into a penalty shoot-out
and like their neighbours on the
far side of Stanley Park, they lost
it. When Nathan Eccleston
became the second Liverpool
player to miss, Abdul Osman had
a single spot-kick in front of the
Kop to present Northamptonwith
the greatest result in thier
history. He was nerveless.
However, had David Ngog not
headed home with five minutes
of extra time remaining or Martin
Kelly not cleared off the line
immediately afterwards,
Liverpool would not even have
had the escape route of a penalty
shoot-out conducted in a
monsoon.
Having gone behind as early as
the eighth minute, the side 17th
in League Two fought back to
equalise, force extra time and
then come within a few
moments of snatching perhaps
the finest result in their history
as Michael Jacobs, a graduate of
Northampton's youth teams
drove home a loose ball into the
net beneath the Kop after Brad
Jones had parried Kevin
Thornton's shot. That
Northampton would throw
themselves into the occasion
with every fibre of their being
was predictable. That they would
be the better side for swathes of
the match was not.
Milan Jovanovic's goal was
almost the only coherent move
Liverpool put together in normal
time and after the interval
Northampton profited from a
carelessness that is threatening
to become endemic. Liverpool
failed to clear a ball played into
the area by Liam Davis and Billy
McKay, a Northern Ireland
Under-21 international who had
been released by Leicester,
smashed the ball past Jones.
The task facing Northampton
was considerable. No club has
won the League Cup more than
Liverpool and only one team
from a lower division has come
to Anfield in the competition and
won - Grimsby in 2001, when
Liverpool were the holders.
Northampton had brought
thousands of supporters with
them to Merseyside, along with
some unimpressive form in
League Two and a lengthy injury
list.
Jovanovic's goal ought to have
provided the signal for a rout but
did nothing of the sort. Although
there was no insurance on the
bench, where mainly academy
graduates sat beside him,
Hodgson had selected a
reasonably strong side, although
before the interval he was
tearing off his jacket in
frustration as another piece of
sloppy play was enacted a few
feet from where he was
standing.
Northampton do not have a lot of
experience of facing Liverpool.
The teams have not met since
April 1966, when Shankly's
Liverpool were driving towards
their second championship and
the Cobblers' brief, improbable
taste of top-flight football was
drawing rapidly to a close.
Wantage Road witnessed a
goalless draw that demonstrates
nothing in football is predictable.
Northampton conducted
themselves admirably both
defensively and in attack. Liam
Davis judged his challenge
superbly in his own area to
dispossess Daniel Pacheco, while
at the other end Michael Jacobs
sent a shot whistling past the
post beneath the Kop.
In the Anfield Road End, the
travelling supporters began a
chorus, to the tune of Hey Jude
‚ of "La, la la la ... Cobblers". The
next couple of months will
determine whether this will be
the theme to Liverpool's season.