Curle happy with a point against Orient

Posted Wednesday, January 22, 2020 by PA

Northampton boss Keith Curle was happy to take a point form the 1-1 draw at Leyton Orient but refused to talk about the late 14-man flare-up which left both sides to finish the match with 10-men.

The promotion-chasing Cobblers had gone in front through Ryan Watson but then conceded a late-penalty when Scott Wharton handled the ball and Josh Wright levelled from the penalty-spot.

A mass brawl ensued and referee Alan Young sent-off Wharton and Orient’s James Dayton for violent conduct.

“I don’t want to spoil what was an entertaining game by talking about other matters,” Curle said.

“You will always take a point away from home. I thought that we created good chances and I thought we defended quite well and got some good blocks in but Orient had the ascendancy in the second-half. We couldn’t get up the pitch frequently enough.

“I thought we gave them a lot of problems in the first-half and probably should have been a couple more to the good.

“I think if we could have got another goal, that would have changed the atmosphere around the stadium. I thought we had the lions share of the game in the first-half.

“In the second-half, they gained the momentum. When we had the chances to get up the field, we didn’t retain possession well enough.

“That’s something that we’ve got to improve on.”

Asked about the penalty, Curle said, “It’s been given and I’m not going to talk about referee’s decisions. I think it’s very unfair because of the very committed performance by two teams.”

Orient head coach Ross Embleton who now has seen Orient win just one of his 12 matches in charge since taking over from Carl Fletcher, said: “The contrast between the first half display and the second half was mind blowing.

“We looked edgy given the form and bizarrely it felt as though going a goal down actually calmed us down a little bit and we took the attitude in the second half we had nothing to lose.

“Full credit to Josh Wright for scoring the penalty because there were a few murmurs from the crowd to bring him off and to be fair there could have been a few players I could of substituted.

“He has missed a couple of penalties but showed real strength in character and deserves a massive pat on the back.

“Regarding the penalty, I don’t think James Dayton can believe he has been shown a red card in the after melee yet their substituted player Vadaine Oliver has sprinted half the length of the pitch to join in and no-one sees anything.

“So many things which didn’t make sense but I am not allowed to speak to the referee until 30 minutes afterwards so we will wait and see.”