9 Team Friendly

On the day of the match they left for the Oxford city Stadium Court Place Farm at 12 P.M, the sun was blazing high in the sky. The teams started the warm ups at about 2 P.M the coach called Elijah to the side during the warm up when Elijah reached he said

"I know I told you will not play but I want you to get ready you have adapted to the team faster than I thought so you might get a chance"

"Thanks coach if you call on me I will be there to answer" and Elijah headed back to training.

The stadium had a total of about 400 fans who were attending, they were on the bench headed out first to take a sit, the players playing came out shortly after. The game started at 3:00 P.M the teams starting line up was

Gk: Shane Higgs

Defenders: Anthony Charles, Jason Crowe, Ben Tozer, Jon Johnson Andy Holt

Midfielders: Lewis Young, Arron Davies, Micheal Built, Michael Jacobs

Strikers: Tadhg Purcell, Adebayo Akinfenwa.

They were lined up in a 4-4-2 formation with Oxford City in a 4-5-1 formation. The coin toss was won by the opposing team so they kick offed, the game started with a slow tempo with Northampton having a slight superiority which lead to a goal

In the 14 minutes by Purcell when a got a through pass after excellent work from Jacobs down the right hand side the game was settled after the early goal by Northampton, and Oxford started to push back and finally tasted success

In the 37 minutes with a goal from Steele that woke the Northampton players from their slumber, both sides continue to try to find the next goal with most of Northampton chances falling to the hands of Akinfenwa with two shots on target when the half-time whistle blew.

The coach did not try to change much in the half-time team talk just ask the team to be more bold in attack, the play soon resumed and a lapse in concentration by the captain andy allowed Oxford to take the lead

In 48 minute by Basham, the next few minutes were spent by Northampton trying to score, the substitutions began at the 60 minutes with 5 players coming off in Andy, Lewis, Davies, Purcell and Crowe replaced with Jake Robinson, Paul Turnbull, Seth, and Byron.

The Substitutions proved effective as Akinfenwa assisted Built in the 62 minute to equalize the score at 2:2 the rest of the game became a drag as both played the score till the end. It was nice to watch the team play allow Elijah to imagine different scenarios, Lewis Wilson was disappointed not to play, Jacobs was pretty happy with his performance Elijah was happy for him too he walked up to him after the game and said

"You owe me an assist"

He laughed and said "sure I always deliver"

Young added "to girls" and they all laughed.