Match Report: Portsmouth 2 Northampton Town 1
Multi-talented two-goal hero Oliver Hawkins earned the praise of his coaches as Portsmouth overcame League One rivals Northampton Town at Fratton Park yesterday.
Hawkins scored either side of half time to secure the points after Matty Kennedy had cancelled out Chris Long’s opener.
Pompey finish 2017 in sixth place, while Northampton are five points from the relegation zone.
Portsmouth assistant manager Joe Gallen applauded the summer signing, who has appeared at both centre half and centre forward this season.
“Oli’s come back into the team, gone up front and scored two great headers,” he said:
“He scored two goals at the back stick, classic centre-forward goals.
“It seems that he’s able to play both positions, which wasn’t the initial plan, but we’re really pleased to have that.
“Centre half or centre forward, we’ve signed a player who can do both.
He added: “In the second half it looked like we could score off every chance and had chances off every attack.”
With five minutes gone, Cobblers keeper Matt Ingram had to be alert to deny Oli Hawkins one-on-one following Brett Pitman’s pass.
Sam Hoskins then spotted Luke McGee off his line and attempt to lob him, but the Blues keeper recovered.
The game suddenly burst into life after a head injury to Nathan Thompson.
From the resulting contested drop-ball between John-Joe O’Toole and Danny Rose, the Blues midfielder sustained a suspected broken leg, sparking fury from the home crowd.
Northampton took the lead when the on-loan Long to burst through the middle, latch on to Lewis McGugan’s pass and fire low into the net.
Pompey weren’t behind for long, equalizing when Kennedy played a one-two with Ben Close before finishing low into the far corner.
The hosts took the lead just before half time, Hawkins using his head to divert Christian Burgess’ long pass over the stranded Ingram from the edge of the box.
Hawkins grabbed his second early in the second half, bundling home Dion Donohue’s cross at the far post for his sixth of the season.
They could have gone further ahead when Close rattled the crossbar from Nathan Thompson’s pullback.
The chances kept arriving for the hosts, and Jamal Lowe went clean through but could only poke wide.
Burgess headed wide late on as the Blues saw the game out comfortably.
Cobblers boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink believes his side need to rebuild confidence to escape the drop zone.
He said: “Confidence is fragile, we need to regroup and get together and try to get that confidence back up.
“Some things need to go for us at the moment, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop, you have to keep on going and find your own luck, keep on working hard and doing the right things and it will change.
“We want to try to do well against Wigan and get some points on the board.”
