Northampton Town 0-1 Southampton

Another Tuesday night, another cup adventure in the depths of England’s football pyramid. While most sensible people were tucked up in bed, 4,381 hardy souls – including a decent contingent of travelling Saints – made their way to Sixfields Stadium to watch Southampton navigate the potential banana skin that is Northampton Town in the EFL Cup first round.

Cup football against lower league opposition is never as straightforward as it appears on paper, and for long stretches of this encounter, it looked like we might be in for one of those nights. Northampton, sitting three divisions below us, showed exactly the kind of dogged determination and organisation that has embarrassed bigger clubs throughout cup history. They pressed with enthusiasm, defended in numbers, and clearly fancied their chances of becoming the latest giant-killers to grace the back pages.

The breakthrough, when it finally came, bore the name of Fernandes – a moment of quality that separated the sides when stubbornness alone wasn’t going to suffice. Without the luxury of detailed match statistics, we can only paint the picture with broad brushstrokes, but the goal itself was the kind of composed finish that reminded everyone present why there are three divisions between these clubs. It was professional, if not spectacular, and in cup football, that’s often all that matters.

Credit where it’s due to the Cobblers, who never let their heads drop despite falling behind and continued to make life uncomfortable right until referee David Rock’s final whistle. The fact that neither side picked up a booking suggests this was more chess match than bloodbath, with both teams focused on playing rather than kicking lumps out of each other – a refreshing change in an era where cup ties often resemble medieval battles.

The attendance of 4,381 might not set any records, but there’s something beautifully pure about Tuesday night cup football in a compact ground where every shout can be heard. These are the nights that remind you why you fell in love with football in the first place – no VAR drama, no prima donnas, just eleven versus eleven and may the best team win.

Job done, then. Not pretty, not memorable, but effective. Fernandes’ strike books our passage to the next round, and sometimes that’s all you can ask for. Roll on round two – hopefully at a more civilised hour.