Northampton Town 1-0 Mansfield Town

Last updated : 27 December 2005 By Editor
Peter Shirtliff Full Reaction: (Realplayer needed)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/realmedia/football/2006/stags_
northampton_away_shirtliff.ram


"I thought we played quite well and gave a good account of ourselves.
"I was disappointed with the free kick which led to the goal.
"Gareth had no intent to handle when he went in. Sometimes they are given, sometimes not. But it was a fantastic strike and you have to hold your hands up.
"It was a bit of quality and we showed nothing of that type of quality in and around their box.
"Sometimes we panic too much. We need more composure which is hard when you are where we are in the league."

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Northampton manager Colin Calderwood.....(Speaking to the official Northampton Town Website)

We are satisfied with where we are but there is nothing to get too excited about yet," he said.

"We are a very determined group with our eyes on something a lot better then we have reached yet. We are delighted to win, and to win with a set piece that we spent a lot of time practicing on is very pleasing. In parts of the first half some of our play was superb and once again there was a lot to be pleased out from a good performance.

"We had some chances to score again and make it more comfortable and although Mansfield had a good little spell towards the end I never felt we were hanging on at any point. I was very pleased with the performance and our determination to see the result out. This result was not enough to get us in to the top three but that is what we have our sights set.

"It was a tough call to put Luke Chambers on the bench but both he and Ian Taylor are on four bookings and we didn't want have to them both suspended at some point over Christmas. As we go through this run of games it becomes less of a problem but I did not want to go to Rochdale next Monday with both Taylor and Chambers suspended. We had Pedj to come in and that is why you have a squad. We explained the decision to Luke and he understood and there was no one more happy than him with this result.

"We have a little worry over Chris Doig but we are hoping he will be Ok for Wednesday.

"The fans showed their passion by being patient with us today and I would like to thank them for that. I put in my programme notes that I want us to be best team in the league and for the fans to show they are the best fans in the league. The atmosphere at games like the Peterborough match takes care of itself, but it's home games like this where we need the fans to lift us and they did today. We want to get ourselves in to a very exciting position for us and the fans and we are well on the way to doing that."