Liverpool lose to League Two Northampton Town
Liverpool lost to League Two outfit Northampton Town at Anfield after a penalty shoot-out sent the visitors through.
Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson chose a second string team, yet he will be disappointed that Liverpool could not manage a victory at home. Fringe players such as Ryan Babel, Lucas Leiva, Brad Jones and Sotirios Kyrgiakos were all given opportunities to impress
the new boss, but Liverpool were beaten by a spirited Northampton side.
Liverpool took the lead after only nine minutes when Milan Jovanovic put the home side in front and scored his first goal for the club. Liverpool missed a host of chances and should have gone in more than 1-0 up at the interval.
Northampton came back and Kevin Thornton beat Kyrgiakos to Liam Davis’ cross. The flick on, fell to Billy McKay who hammered his shot past Jones in the Liverpool goal. Liverpool tried to up the tempo, but failed to break down Northampton’s defence. The Anfield
crowd were becoming restless as the League Two side held on to a 1-1 draw and brought the match into extra-time.
Youngster’s Thomas Ince, Jonjo Shelvey and Nathan Eccleston were introduced during extra-time, but none of the players could create the spark that Liverpool needed.
In fact it was Northampton who scored with Michael Jacobs scoring. Thornton’s strike was blocked by Stephen Kelly and the ball fell to Jacobs who tapped the ball into the net. Kyrgiakos and Kelly wasted two good chances, but eventually David Ngog converted
a chance in the 116 minute after Kyrgiakos headed the ball on to the striker.
The game went into penalties. Ngog missed Liverpool’s first penalty and when Eccleston struck the bar it was left to Abdul Osman to take the winning penalty. The player made no mistake and gave Northampton a famous win.
After the game Hodgson said, “I didn’t think it was a good performance. Northampton did well throughout the game. I chose to leave a lot of players out of the team. I had full faith the team we had out would be good enough.”
Hodgson has had a bad start in his tenure as Liverpool manager and already pressure has started to mount. Liverpool have only managed one win – against West Brom – in the Premier League this season and the team looks weak when players like Fernando Torres
and Steven Gerrard are not in the team. Hodgson will be concerned with this exit at the hands of League Two Northampton.
Tags: