Forest Green Rovers vs Northampton Town. The FA Cup First Round.
The New LawnAttendance1,479.
Saturday 6 November 2010 19:36, UK
Ruthless Northampton ensured there was no FA Cup fairytale for Forest Green this season as they cruised to a 3-0 win.
Rovers, who have reached the third round in the last two campaigns, were beaten by John Johnson's spectacular strike and further goals from Steve Guinan and Michael Jacobs. The non-league underdogs hardly helped their cause with some catastrophic errors, including a fourth penalty miss of the season from Reece Styche late on. The opening goal stemmed from a Nathaniel Wedderburn free-kick from the left which only half-cleared dropped for Johnson to smash the sweetest of volleys into the top corner from 25 yards. It was 2-0 10 minutes later, Guinan benefiting from a slip by Adam Quinn to latch onto Billy McKay's through-ball and finish coolly by rounding James Bittner. Rovers had a glimmer of hope in the 73rd minute when Styche was tripped by Ben Tozer inside the area. The top scorer took the spot-kick himself but Cobblers keeper Chris Dunn guessed correctly by diving left to save. And it was all over two minutes later when Craig Armstrong presented the ball to substitute Jacobs, who duly netted within seconds of coming on.
