Date 21/07/09 AT Sixfields Stadium. Attendance 1975
TEAM Konstantopolous, Wright, Fox, Turner (McPake 67), Clarke, Doyle, Osbourne (Hall 82), Gunnarsson (A.Walker 68), Cain, Morrison (Jeffers 78), Best (Eastwood 71) SNU Quirke
Northampton
Dunn,Jackman, Guttridge, Hinton, Osman (Beckwith 78),Guinan (McKay 61), Akinfenwa (Harris 61), Dyer (Jacobs 81), Holt, McCready, Curtis (Rogers 70) SNU P.Walker, Benjamin
Half Time Score: NTFC 0-0 CCFC
Full Time Score: NTFC 1-2 CCFC Goals Leon Best (51), Billy McKay (83), Shaun Jeffers (87) Referee D.Whitestone Man Of The Match: Leon Best and Ashley Cain got the votes
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Coventry City picked up the Jackson Grundy Cup with a late 2-1 victory at Northampton Town.
With Keiren Westwood still nursing a knee injury and Danny Ireland still ill, City started with Dimi Konstanopolus in goal and Academy keeper Michael Quirke on the bench.
It was a dire first half. Although City were the better team in the opening half, Northampton found it too easy to bypass the midfield when they wanted to attack.
An excellent turn out of 686 City supporters in the away end, that included former player Kevin Thornton, at Sixfields were clearly disgruntled early on. Some demanded to know where the signings were and when Mr Ranson was going to splash the cash as a flap from the City keeper saw Ben Turner hastily clear inthe 8th minute.
Saves from the Greek led to ironic cheers from some of the City support and in the 18th minute, he smothered a low drive from Dyer.
Ashley Cain was again a threat and in the 26th minute, he got inside on the right and hit a shot, which produced a wonderful reaction save from Chris Dunn.
Best, Gunnarsson and Doyle fired over before the break.
City were unchanged for the second half and came out fired up.
Within six minutes of the restart, they took the lead thanks to Leon Best,who got to the edge of the area before thumping a low drive into the net.
Cain was again denied by the home keeper and City a penalty when McCready handled.
James McPake, Adam Walker whose dad Rik joined Northampton after playing for City Reserves, and Freddie Eastwood were sent on.
Best was the man taken off for the former Wolves striker and he was met with great applause from the City fans as he applauded them.
Eastwood came on to a tongue firmly in cheek chant of "Where's Your Rubbish Gone". He was soon getting the "Freddie" chants as he provided City with more of a threat than Clinton Morrison could muster.
Shaun Jeffers and Marcus Hall also got good applause but just after Hall came on, Northampton equalised.
A Dimi fumble was cleared by Fox. When the ball came back in, Billy McKay was on hand to volley into the net.
Six minutes left and our thoughts turned to penalties which would happen if this game was level at the ninety minute mark.
But with three minutes to go, the game was decided by a peach of goal. Ashley Cain burst down the right and sent a superb ball over towards the far post. There was Shaun Jeffers and City's U18's top scorer from last season met the ball with a neat header to flick it into the net.
This silenced the Northampton fans to our left in the Main Stand who had been slightly vocal towards the City support and it was the Coventry City supporters who cheered when the Jackson Grundy (apparently they are a firm of estate agents) Cup was lifted.
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