Boothroyd relief as Cobblers edge past battling Torquay

Town beat the Gulls 1-0 courtesy of Roy O’Donovan’s third goal for the club under the Good Friday Night lights at Sixfields to go third in npower League Two.

It was another gritty win for Northampton against a Torquay side that made light of their position among the division’s strugglers and were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty during the second half.

“I thought it could easily have gone either way, I have to be honest,” he said. “A 1-1 draw or a 0-0 draw would have been a fair result.

“We had a couple of penalty shouts, they had a couple of penalty shouts, we had a goal disallowed and they had a goal disallowed.

“We scored in the end but I thought it was a performance full of belief. They came back at us in fairness of them and it just shows you how tight the division is.

“The margins between winning and losing are so small and I thought it was an excellent advert for football at this level of the game.”

Town lost some of their momentum in the game when Clive Platt, who was giving the Torquay defence a torrid time in the first half, was forced out of the action with a calf injury.

The striker was withdrawn during the interval and Northampton’s threat was diluted as a result but they eventually prevailed through O’Donovan’s goal.

“Clive and Roy were excellent and I thought B (Akinfenwa) was excellent when he came on as well, everyone played well,” he said.

“I asked Clive at half-time if he could carry on and he said he could but I didn’t want to risk him for Cheltenham.”