Town youngsters progress with Northampton triumph

Victory also saw them top the six-team mini-league, with boss Paul Driver saying: “We are delighted, firstly, to progress to the next stage.

“The added reward of winning the group should be something we are proud of as well as giving us the belief to push on when the league programme returns against Wycombe on Saturday.

“Being honest, this was probably our worst actual performance of the season.

“Only Jerome Jibodu and, in the second half, James Ferguson played at the levels and standards we expect of our boys.

“Having said that, we’ve won and we’ve used five U16 players on the day.”

With Jake Woolley and Nick Burtenshaw on reserve duty and Ben Ekins, Mustafa Mirzai and Moses Kaddu at loan clubs, a number of U16 players were involved in the game which was switched to Ely Way as the Northampton venue was unavailable.

The early stages saw a fairly even contest between the teams and it wasn’t until the 28th minute that the deadlock was broken when Jordan Davis burst into the box and his cross was bundled over the line by Colby McAdams.

Davis then had the perfect chance to double the lead in the 38th minute when he was put through one-on-one with the keeper, but he lost his footing as he went to shoot and the chance went begging as the Hatters led by just one goal at the break.

Early in the second half, Northampton drew level when Danny Elmer took advantage of a mistake from the Hatters defence to chip the ball over Ben Barnes and into the empty net.

The game then became a scrappy, sometimes bad-tempered affair, which was eventually won by the Hatters youngsters when a neat trick by Charlie Smith paved the way for Davis to take his chance by slotting past the oncoming keeper from 12 yards in the 75th minute.

Northampton pressed hard in the final minutes for the point that their endeavours undoubtedly deserved, but were unable to capitalise when two excellent chances were bravely blocked by Jibodu when a goal seemed the only outcome.

Hatters: Barnes, Pett, Jibodu, Blake (Rees 68), Ferguson, Stephens (Terry 52), McAdams, Nash, Ann, Smith (Banton 75), Davis. Substitutes not used: Longden.