Improved performance pleases Northampton boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink

Posted Sunday, February 11, 2018 by PA

Northampton Town manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was pleased with an improved attacking display from his team that produced a vital 3-1 victory at AFC Wimbledon.

The Cobblers’ recent revival hit a bump with a 1-0 home loss against Rochdale last week, but they recovered in style at Kingsmeadow to record their fourth win in six games.

It allowed them to move three points clear of the League One relegation zone and up two places, including above the Dons, who are now only a point ahead of trouble.

Hasselbaink said: “It was a big difference and I think we attacked really well.

“This is not an easy place to come, but I think that we deserved everything that we got today.

“I think we were the better team, especially in the first half, when we could have scored two or three goals, but we looked sharp, we played well, found the extra man in the right areas.

“When we did, we looked dangerous and it was really pleasant to see.

“The commitment from the boys was really there and they were ready for whatever was coming to them, in whatever shape or form.

“I don’t just want to look at the attack today – Brendan Moloney came in and did ever so well in the right-back position and I think Ash (Taylor) led the back four really, really well.

“As a team, we did really well, so I think you have to applaud everybody.”

Matt Grimes’ thumping penalty gave Northampton the lead after just eight minutes, but Wimbledon equalised early in the second half through Deji Oshilaja’s header from Lyle Taylor’s corner.

The Cobblers then restored their lead just after the hour through Matt Crooks’ finish into the bottom corner before Daniel Powell rounded off a flowing move to seal the points.

Wimbledon manager Neal Ardley said: “It wasn’t good enough, the best team won and that’s probably been the case every game this week.

“We’ve had a bad week. We’ve gone from a team not conceding a goal and full of beans to completely the opposite.

“We’ve looked disjointed, we haven’t handled pressure very well, we haven’t handled adversity very well and we’ve defended poorly.

“We got on top of the game for 10 minutes in the second half and you think ‘here we go, we’ll go on and win this’, and then we defended really poorly.

“This is the same team that kept four clean sheets in January.

“I’ve seen their penalty back and it’s not a pen – I asked the two lads nearest him if they’d had any contact with him and they said ‘gaffer, we never touched him’.

“I’ve watched it back and their guy throws himself to the ground, he’s conned the ref.”