A Review by John Taylor

With September having been the pits, October's first game away at Stockport was as good a fixture as we could have wished for. The Hatters were, like us, struggling and were without our old chum, Luke Beckett, out with a long-term injury. If we were to win an away game, surely this would be it, though history was against us. As it turned out, the encounter was dire with 2 sides totally lacking confidence. Stockport had a good chance in the first half, but O'Hare's fine block saved the day whilst Jamie Cade almost scored with a second half lob from the edge of the box. That was about it on the first cold day of the season. Oh-Blathers got himself sent off in the last minute for smacking the Stockport sub for no apparent reason-another splendidly professional act from our most expensive player.

Nene Park was next up for our first first-team visit to Irthlingborough on a hot, sunny afternoon. Much of the focus was on England's game in Turkey and how we'd get to watch the match live. As it turned out, England did the business after Town didn't, predictably. Amazingly, Mark De Bolla was back with us after seemingly being so injured we'd never see him again, but he managed only the sub's bench for this one. We went behind early on when a left wing corner saw Barry Hunter outjump Carl Muggleton to head in. Within a minute we were level from a flicked header from Marvin Robinson after a great free-kick delivery from O'Hare. The good news didn't last long though, as Muggs made another error with a weak punch to Jack who swept the ball home from the edge of the box. Fifteen minutes gone and that was about it. Rushden were average, we had a lot of possession and created nothing. It was all so predictably depressing and we lost 2-1.

We were hoping that the midweek LDV game with Macclesfield would help to kick-start the season. They had yet to win a game in the thing in their short league spell so we were, for once, fairly confident. We started splendidly with a classy goal from Cade with an astute near-post flick, again from an O'Hare delivery. Shortly afterwards we were almost in rapture-land when Marvin put us 2-0 up after Hudson threaded the ball through a hesitant defence. This was starting to look easy, but again we cocked it up within no time at all. The Silkmen attacked down the right and our central defence failed to deal with the cross which was rammed in at the back post by the Macc left-back. From then on all our briefly found confidence ebbed away and we became an edgy, ragged outfit. To give the team credit, however, they were hard-working and dogged, deservedly hanging on for that first, elusive win of the season. The post-match pint tasted good for once.

Next up was Swindon with the exciting news that we'd signed Paul Warhurst for a month with his wages being paid by Printability 2000. Hopes were high that he could provide the spark to get us going. He was on the bench against the Wiltshire outfit, but we started well enough without him. Like the Macclesfield game, we were bright early on with Jamie Cade twice setting up Marvin Robinson to put us 2 ahead. Unlike the Macc encounter, though, we didn't squander the lead and kept going. The Robins swapped things about and started competing a bit better, but the win was confirmed second half when the impressive Cade swept in Uhlenbeek's excellent low cross for a deserved first 3-pointer of the season. Andy King wasn't very happy and the win took us off the bottom of the table.

The following Tuesday brought the Monkey-hangers to Town, so another win had to be on the cards to try to climb up the table. We began sluggishly, however, with Pool pressing strongly early on, despite a makeshift strikeforce. With Cade starting to look particularly lively we fought back but midway through the half, we pressed the self-destruct button again. Twice we broke down a Pool attack but Allott put in a poor clearance which was returned behind our static defence to Richardson, who looked offside but wasn't. His low cross was turned into his own net by Evatt for his first goal of the season-a pity it was in the wrong end. Evatt was not, however, to blame as he had to challenge or Williams coming in behind him would have scored anyway. The game got a little downbeat after this and half-time came with no equaliser.

The second half saw renewed purpose with Cade again a handful, though the Pool keeper pulled off a fine save from a 1 on 1. We soon levelled, however, with a scrappy goal by Cade after good work by Robinson. There looked to be only one winner at this point as we advanced with renewed confidence and gusto. Pool nearly snatched it, though, but Muggleton made an awesome save from a close range header on the hour. Marvin Robinson then almost did the trick for us, heading against the upright from a right wing cross. Soon afterwards Robinson of Hartlepool came on and made it an away win, totally against the run of play when Payne's error on the right let him in for a clinical finish. It was depressing stuff after looking like we could win again. There really does not seem to be an end to the stupid errors costing us dear.

The month ended with the trip to Colchester, where we needed to put things right after last season's gutless capitulation (twice) to the Essex outfit. We were unfortunately without the ill Paul Warhurst and a decent result was not to be as we gave them an early goal with Evatt and Muggleton doing their "after you Claude" bit and presenting Andrews with the simplest of tasks to score. We then proceeded to have the lion's share of possession without really troubling Brown in the U's goal. Brandon was at his most infuriating, constantly turning the wrong way when well placed and never delivering the crucial ball. The worst of the game, however, was reserved for late on. Uhlenbeek contrived to get himself booked for a rash challenge that wasn't necessary as Evatt was covering him. He then seemed to lose his head and was rightly dismissed near the end for taking out an opponent off the pitch. Such actions are unbelievably unprofessional in someone of his ability and experience. If he was 20, you could understand it and excuse it somewhat, but this just adds to the problems and frustrations.

So, we had another thoroughly miserable month with errors galore undoing the good work and both manager and assistant seemingly tearing out their hair in rage at the situation. It just is not good enough. I am convinced that the players are better than the results and performances, but they continue to prove me wrong. Many of the errors just seem to be through lack of concentration, brainlessness or indiscipline and the form of Hudson and Brandon is a cause for much concern. Evatt looks better in defence than midfield, despite the lapse at Layer Road, but we have too many central defenders anyway. On the positive side, Cade and Robinson have swiftly achieved an understanding, but the combination is, of course, temporary. The one real bright spot was the performance of the youth side in the FA Youth Cup against Hednesford. A thoroughly professional and entertaining performance saw a comfortable win on away soil by 3-0 with a Jamie Donnelly hat-trick. It was a joy to behold-could this be reflected in the first team please!