Northampton out of FA Cup after heavy defeat at York City

Northampton Town are out of the FA Cup after a 4-0 defeat by York City at the LNER Stadium.

The Cobblers had drawn on their league visit to the LNER Community Stadium last month but fell behind to a first minute Ollie Pearce goal and things duly got worse for Chris Hogg’s side as a second for Pearce and further goals by Alex Hunt and Josh Stones completed the rout.

Defeat means another First Round FA Cup exit for the Cobblers, who had exited the competition in the First Round in each of the six seasons before this one.

Northampton had arrived hoping for an improvement after a midweek defeat by Oldham but their day began going wrong pretty much straight away when they fell behind inside the opening 15 seconds.

The Cobblers defence couldn’t clear Zac Johnson’s long ball and it duly fell the way of Pearce, who smashed the ball beyond Zach Jeacock to give the home side the lead.

It would duly be 2-0 to York in the 12th minute as Pearce intercepted Lee Evans’ pass, charged forward and buried his strike.

As if going two behind wasn’t enough, Northampton also had to substitute goalkeeper Jeacock in the aftermath, with the Cobblers keeper unable to carry on due to injury and he would be replaced by James Dadge for his Northampton debut.

York then made it 3-0 just before the half-hour mark of the contest, as Harry Boyes’ cross picked out Hunt to finish and extend the advantage accumulated by Scott Lindsey’s side.

Owen Dale would miss the target with chances either side of half-time for Northampton.

A quick passage of play saw Dadge deny Pearce a goal that would’ve made it his hat-trick before Tyrese Fornah saw a shot denied by Alfie McNally.

The Northampton substitute keeper also denied Jovan Malcolm, but he would be beaten for a fourth time in the 81st minute as Joe Felix’s cross picked out Stones for a close-range finish.

A miserable day in Yorkshire duly concluded, with Northampton left to lick their wounds after yet another early exit from the competition. The Cobblers are next in action in the Jersey Mike’s Trophy against Gillingham on Tuesday night, before they return to league action next weekend with a visit to League 2 leaders Salford City.