[jjamez]

Fresh off the back of a resounding 4-0 win away at Bolton Wanderers, Huddersfield return to the John Smith's Stadium to Northampton, in what is set to be a rather busy period for the Terriers, with 5 games set to come over a two week period, including a tantalizing game against moneybag side Birmingham.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves just yet. There are a few games to come before that and it would be typical of Town to take the eye of the ball too soon in hope for a victory. Northampton will be looking to ruffle a few feathers in the hope of kick-starting their second campaign at this level since their most recent promotion. Last season they finished a respectable 14th and are currently sat in 18th this time around, having won just the one league game so far this season, at home to Exeter. They began the season away at Bristol Rovers and fell to a 92nd minute winner, before falling at the first hurdle in the Carabao Cup, 2-0 at home to 10 man Wycombe. They bounced back with the 2-1 win at home to Exeter before playing out two draws before the international break, away at Barnsley, 2-2 and a goalless draw at home to Burton Albion. Last time out they faced Wycombe once again, losing once again, this time 2-1.

Still managed by Australian Jon Brady, the Newcastle (New South Wales version) native had a lengthy career in the lower league in England, beginning his senior footballing experience at Brentford and then Swansea and Wycombe (all lower league at the time) but after failing to make the grade at Wycombe, he would move to Norway for a spell at Mjolner (Not quite Aussie Thor's Hammer) before finally settling and having a 4 year stay at Hayes. He would stay there for 4 years before moving to Rusden & Diamonds for yet another 4 year spell, making well over 300 appearances for the two clubs in total. Come the early 00's he would leave the Diamonds and move to Woking for a short spell before moving North to Chester. After a year at Chester he would join Arsenals coaching team, but he would resume playing not long after as he would move to Stevenage for two years before heading on to Hereford United for a season. Not content at what he had witnessed in England so far, he left and joined Cambridge United for a season, also spending time on loan at Kidderminster Harriers. Upon leaving Cambridge he joined Rushden's rivals, Kettering, playing one season before moving to Brackley where he would spend the last 5 years of his playing career, becoming manager of the Saints part way through his stay there. In keeping with the Newcastle theme he would remain at St James Park for a few seasons after retiring as a player but stepped down in 2015.

In 2016 he joined the Cobblers as under 16's coach before being promoted to under 18's coach a year later. Following the sacking of Keith Curle in 2021, Brady was placed in temporary charge of the first team. Brady would remain in charge of the first-team until the end of the season and in the penultimate match of the season, Northampton were beaten by Blackpool, a result that saw them immediately relegated back to League Two. Despite the relegation however Brady was appointed permanent manager and in his first full season in charge of the club he narrowly missed out on promotion, they sat third in the league and beat Barrow 3-1, but Bristol Rovers were level on points with them and needed to better the Cobblers result by 5 goals. Bristol Rovers beat Scunthorpe 7-0 and secured automatic promotion. They would go on to lose to Mansfield in the Play offs but managed to get promotion a year later when they finished 3rd, for certain this time. Last season they finished comfortably in 14th, 16 points away from the relegation zones and 16 points away from the play off places, striker Sam Hoskins bagged a respectable 15 goals in the league. They were a bit shaky to begin with in the season, but a solid winter period saw them register 8 wins from November to the end of January, only losing 3 times in that period and drawing twice. They finished the campaign much like they started it, but the 8 winter wins had seen them already all but safe, especially considering teams at the bottom of the table had the likes of Darren Moore as manager.



In terms of transfers this summer, one of the major departures for the side is that of midfielder Marc Leonard. The Scotsman spent two seasons on loan at the club from Brighton and saw his importance to the club increase. Town were rumoured to be interested in signing him, but it would be Birmingham that sealed the deal, not for the first time that they would beat us to the punch. Elsewhere though, the Cobblers were busy in regards to incomings. Winger Tariq Fosu joined on a free transfer, he spent the 2022-2023 season on loan at Rotherham, but failed to find a club last season, he had been set to move to Turkey, but that deal collapsed, he did trial at a few clubs but nothing materialised until Northampton took a punt on him. Callum Morton joined on loan from Salford City, the former West Brom man spent half of last season on loan at Forest Green and has yet to score for Salford. He did have a loan spell at Northampton a few season ago whilst still with the Baggies, which might go to explain why they would loan him in from the league below. Left sided player Liam McCarron joined for an undisclosed fee from Stoke City, the former Leeds United man joined Stoke back in 2022 but could only manage the one solitary cup appearance for the side. He had a short trial with the Cobblers before Brady was convinced to sign him on a one year deal with the option for a further year.

The Cobblers raided Brighton for a different midfielder this season as Samy Chouchane joined on loan, he's yet to make a senior appearance for the Seagulls, but has made two appearances so far this season for Northampton, he also has 10 under 20's caps for Tunisia, but those don't mean too much as we have seen in the past with the likes of Ryan Schofield. We also saw that with Luke Mbete, he represented England from under 15's through to under 21's and was awful for us, but rest assured he is still playing and could well line up against Town on Saturday as Northampton signed him on loan from Man City. Since his loan at Town, he went to Bolton and struggled there, but had a better time out in Holland at Den Bosch, he has made one appearance for the Cobblers this season, so maybe he won't line up against us. Sticking in defence, Jack Baldwin was brought in to try and shore up the back line. The former Sunderland man signed for an undisclosed fee from Scottish side Ross County where he had been for the last three years. Prior to that he had been at Hartlepool before moving to Peterborough, he joined Sunderland in the midst of the Netflix docuseries and had time out on loan at Salford before having a season at Bristol Rovers ahead of crossing North of the border.

New Zealander Matt Dibley-Dias joined on loan from Premier League side Fulham, this is his first taste of senior football, following the Kiwi into the club was Welsh international Tyler Roberts who joined on loan from Birmingham. Roberts, like Morton, began his professional career at West Brom, but made his name at Leeds, making over 100 appearances for that club, scoring just 9 times. He had a loan out at QPR but was sold to Brum last June but made just 17 goalless appearances for the side as they joined Town in being relegated to league one, he has made just the one appearance for the Cobblers so far this campaign. The rest of the signings were free transfers with journey man striker Tom Eaves joining on a 2 year deal after leaving Rotherham. The tall striker began at Oldham before moving to Bolton, but made his name at Gillingham where 38 goals in two seasons earned him a move to Hull City. He spent 3 years at the KC Stadium and I'm sure he saw red at the John Smiths once as well for them, he scored 15 times for the club before moving to Rotherham, whom he had played for earlier in his career. It didn't really work out for him there and he has yet to make an appearance for Northampton this season. Fellow striker James Wilson joined from Port Vale upon the expiry of his contract there. Once highly regarded when he was coming through the ranks at Manchester United, he played 15 times for the Red Devils and scored three times, whilst also having loans out at the likes of Brighton and Aberdeen, eventually moving there permanently in 2019. His career has often been curtailed by serious injuries and has arguably cost him a career in higher leagues. He did manage 9 goals in 29 games for Salford before moving to Port Vale where he registered 17 times in just under 100 games, but whilst his pace may have gone, he still apparently is very technical on the ball, he too has yet to score this season and has only made the one appearance. Finally, Goalkeeper Nik Tzanev joined on a free transfer from AFC Wimbledon to offer competition for the number 1 jersey. The Kiwi played over 100 games for Wimbledon and has two caps for the New Zealand national side, he was joined at the club by Cameron McGeehan who joined from Colchester. McGeehan began at Norwich but would make a name for himself at Luton before moving to South Yorkshire to play for Barnsley. He left Barno for Belgium to play for Oostende for 3 years before returning to join Colchester and then leaving the Cowley brothers to join Northampton this summer.



There was a fair few leaving the Sixfields this summer, Danny Hylton was released and joined former manager Nathan Jones on Wednesday as a player-coach, Liam Moore, formerly of Reading retired, whilst Dom Gape joined them in being released. Reuben Wyatt and Max Dyche both departed on loans to Redditch and Woking respectively, Dyche unsurprisingly has a father who manages a Premier League outfit (for now). Elsewhere, youngster Peter Abimbola joined St Ives on a free transfer, whilst Shaun McWilliams joined former manager Steve Evans at Rotherham. Full back Ryan Hayes moved to Cheltenham, Manny Monthe joined Oldham, fellow defender Sam Sherring dropped down to MK Dons and Louis Appere signed for Stevenage, all on free transfers.

In terms of a player to watch, look no further than Sam Hoskins. The forward began his career at Southampton but never made a league appearance for the Saints but had loan spells at Preston, Rotherham and Stevenage. He failed to make an appearance at Preston, scored twice in eight appearances for the Millers and scored once in 14 games for Stevenage. He left Southampton to join Yeovil in the Championship, but failed to score in 19 Championship appearances and managed just the one goal the next season in League one, he would end up being loaned to non league Barnet where he scored 2 in 6 games. Then in the summer of 2015 Northampton took the punt of giving him a one year deal, he scored 6 league goals that season and earned a longer deal, now 9 years later and 339 appearances later he still represents the Cobblers and has scored 82 goals for the club, reaching double figures in each of the last three seasons. There were rumours that he too could be leaving the club in the summer but nothing materialised and it looks like he will be heading for a testimonial season with the club.

He is currently joint top scorer for the Cobblers with the one solitary goal, joining him on one goal are McCarron, Baldwin, Morton and McGeehan. In terms of creativity Hoskins and Morton both have one to their name, as do Mitch Pinnock and experienced centre half Jon Guthrie. It is fair to say goals have been hard to come by so far this season, but one game can change that and we have barring two games, been a little bit slack later in games, allowing a few too many chances on goal.



Going into Saturdays game, Michael Duff has told the press that Mickel Miller will miss out this time, but more as a precaution than an actual injury worry. Jaheim Headley will be expected to fill in for the time being. There are no other new injury concerns, Bojan and Freddie Ladapo both featured for the B team in the midweek 6-0 victory over Chesterfield, whilst Herbie Kane, David Kasumu and Brodie Spencer have all resumed training and are back in contention for Saturday. Rhys Healey misses out once again with his muscle problem that is still being investigated by Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, Chris Maxwell also misses out due to the after effects of a viral infection which has caused some cardiovascular issues that he has to overcome.

That being said, it would come as no surprise to see Town name an unchanged lineup with one of the three returnees taking a spot on the bench. It appears that Kane is probably the closest to a return to fitness having had a full week of training and conditioning. That being said, following the emphatic win last weekend and the B team result midweek, one of Turton or Ruffles could make a bench appearance to offer a further defensive option alongside Pearson, but personally, I'd rather see Kane on there for the extra creative option.



As for Northampton, Goalkeeper Lee Burge is fit to travel to Huddersfield after coming off against Wycombe last weekend. Tom Eaves is a couple of weeks away, otherwise it is a full squad to pick from.

“Lee got bumped in the eye and it closed up which meant he couldn’t see properly which is why he came off,” said boss Jon Brady. “All the checks have been done and he is fine now. Tom Eaves is potentially a couple of weeks away, he is someone we feel can make a big difference to us and that’s why we worked so hard to bring him in."

“As I spoke about on Saturday, we are still having to manage minutes and that is the frustration because some of those players who came on showed with their performance that they deserve to start. We are trying to build connections but we are having the side a bit disrupted with players having to come out after picking up knocks. That has been frustrating but it’s part of the game and we have to deal with it. We’ve got a busy few months coming up which we have to keep in mind but we want to be picking up points now."

In terms of head to heads, this weekends fixture will be the first meeting between the two sides since 2011, when the two sides met in the John Stones Paints Trophy, Town would come out on top in that game, winning 2-1 thanks to goals from Donal McDermott and Lee Novak either side of a Michael Jacobs cracker. The first ever meeting between the two sides came way back in 1934 in the FA Cup when Northampton come out on top 2-0 down Leeds Road. The first league meeting between the sides would come nearly 30 years later in 1963, the Cobblers would do the double over Town that season, but overall the head to heads have been fairly even, Town having been victorious 14 times, Northampton 12 with 7 draws.

Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland League for two seasons, before joining the Southern League in 1901. They were crowned Southern League champions in 1908–09, allowing them to contest the 1909 FA Charity Shield. Admitted into the Football League in 1920, they spent the next 38 years in the Third Division South. Under Dave Bowen, the club achieved three promotions from the Fourth Division to the First Division within five years. However, Northampton only survived for one season in the top tier of English football after relegation in 1966. Northampton then experienced two further relegations in three years to return to the Fourth Division by 1969 – this set a record in English football of moving from the fourth tier to the first tier and back in only nine years. After six seasons of stability in the fourth tier, the club won promotion before returning to the Fourth Division after another relegation in 1977. Northampton won further promotions to the third tier in 1987 and 1997. Relegated in 1999, they won immediate promotion after securing an automatic promotion place the following season. However they were once more relegated after three seasons of struggle in the third tier, before securing promotion out of League Two in 2005–06 after two unsuccessful play-off campaigns. Relegated at the end of their third season in League One, they won the League Two title in 2015–16, but only lasted two seasons in League One before again being relegated. In 2020, they gained promotion to League One, but were relegated to League Two once again after a single season in the third tier.

Northampton are nicknamed the Cobblers, a reference to the town's historical shoe-making industry, and the team traditionally plays in claret and white kits. The Cobblers played at the County Ground from 1897 until 1994, when they moved to Sixfields Stadium, which has a capacity of 7,798. The club itself has been featuring in Changing Ends, an ITV show about comedian Alan Carr's childhood, with the younger version of Carr a regular at the ground due to Carr's father Graham, being a former manager at the club back in the 80's. Carr senior is approaching 80 years of age now, but is still involved at the club, being on the board of directors. Carr finished managing in the 90's and moved into scouting, working with David Pleat at Tottenham, before moving to work with late England manager Sven Goran Eriksson at Man City and Notts County. He went back to Spurs before heading to Newcastle as scout, he signed an 8 year deal with the club like Alan Pardew but left 5 years into the deal. Has anyone watched the TV show? I've seen one episode, loosely, my girlfriend has watched them all and still doesn't really want to watch football...ever



In terms of the town itself, the thought is that there has been civilisation in the area since the Bronze age, with the likes of the Romans and Angelo Saxons all having settlements in the region at some point. It is thought to have been burnt down in 1010 and 1065, but after the Norman Conquest it was rebuilt and became a site of national significance due to its central location, often acting as a meeting point for Royals and Nobility. King John regularly stayed at the castle and moved The Treasury there in 1205. Some 32 Parliaments were held there at the castle with the last Parliament at Northampton being held in 1380. Significant events in the castle's history include the trial of Thomas Becket in 1164, the publication of the Assize of Northampton in 1176, the declaration of peace with Scotland in the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton, the passage of the Statute of Northampton in 1328 and the imposition of poll tax in 1380.

When the English Civil war broke out in 1642, the town willingly became the main Parliamentarian garrison for the south-east Midlands area with the former royal castle as its headquarters. In 1643, Prince Rupert attacked Northampton with approximately 2,000 men, but was beaten back at the North Gate of the town. Oliver Cromwell visited in 1645 and General Fairfax marched from the town to Naseby, where Charles I's Royalist army was decisively defeated. Over 4,000 pairs of leather shoes and 600 pairs of cavalry jack-boots for the Parliamentary armies were manufactured in Northampton during the Civil War, and a further 2,000 for Cromwell's New Model Army in 1648. Until well into the 19th century, the shoe industry boomed in and around the town with small manufacturing workshops set up in the surrounding areas.

The War ended with a Parliamentary victory, resulting in England becoming a Commonwealth, which lasted a decade. Following the restoration of King Charles II in 1660, he took revenge on the town by ordering the destruction of its walls and partial demolition of its castle in 1662, since it did not support his father Charles I and his cavaliers. By the end of the 18th century, Northampton had become a major centre of footwear and leather manufacture. In 1801, the population was 7,020; it more than doubled to 15,351 in 1831, attributed to the fact that there was great demand for footwear caused by the Napoleonic Wars of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A third of the adult males alone were shoemakers at the time. Northampton grew beyond the old town walls and industry grew rapidly with the mechanisation of factories by the middle of the 19th century. The Town can claim celebrities such as Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke, Game Of Thrones actress Sophie Turner, Morecambe and Wise long term target Des O'Connor as their own. Although O'Connor was born in London but was evacuated during the World War to Northampton. England cricketers Sam Curran and Graeme Swann were also born in Northampton, whilst Princess Diana was made a freeman of Northampton and is buried in Northamptonshire as are a long list of her Spencer ancestors.

We've just past the anniversary of her death and burial, I would have been 4 when she died and all I can remember was not understanding why my kids TV shows had been halted... it may have been when the Queen Mother died, but I'm almost certain it was Diana. What do people remember about her?



Now onto the played for both bit that you all love doing. There has been a few that have donned the colours of both during their career, one from the Shrewsbury match thread in Cristian Lopez for one, we loaned him out to both clubs for short spells, before he returned to Spain. Former Town loanee Emyr Huws got his first taste of professional football when he had a loan at the Cobblers from Manchester City, he played 10 games for the club, a few seasons later and Town would loan him for the season from Wigan, he would essentially come in as a replacement for Jacob Butterfield, the move also saw Jordy Hiwula move to Wigan. Huws would play 30 times for Town and score 5 goals and like in the most part of his career, injuries would hamper him. He retired from playing in 2023 following injury hit spells at Ipswich and Colchester. Former Town academy graduate Matt Crooks also played for both clubs, he made one professional appearance for Town, as Mark Robins decided to play him at centre half in a 4-0 home thrashing. The youngster would have spells away and eventually had his contract terminated as he joined Accrington Stanley. An impressive season for Stanley saw him and fellow graduate Josh Windass make the move to Scotland to join Rangers, injuries hampered him there and he only managed two appearances for the club before moving back to England and joining Northampton. He would rediscover his form whilst at the Cobblers, impressing as a box to box midfielder during his two year stay at the club ahead of joining Rotherham. At Rotherham, Crooks would find himself playing slightly higher up the pitch, sometimes being deployed as an auxiliary striker, after 18 goals in 89 appearances for the Millers, Crooks would follow manager Neil Warnock up to Middlesborough where he would stay until February of this year, before making the move to the US to play for Real Salt Lake. Crooks has also been diagnosed with epilepsy as well as growing up with deaf parents and siblings.



but now the anagrams

1) Unlocked Dog Tin
2) Pub Chalk Aura
3) Oil Spun Awl
4) Inverse Facts
5) Injured Omens
6) Relic Elm Milk
7) Falls For Rasher
8) Ceremony Spites
9) Chills No Eel
10) All Ant Grains
11) Shin Trim Mat

[theo_luddite]

Another good long well researched read that jjamez.

To answer a couple of your questions - I've not seen the Alan Carr thing on the tellybox. For an assortment of reasons my tellybox doesn't seem to find the ITV Channels unless there's a live match or the EFL highlights or some other sport on one of their channels I want to watch. It might be down to being force fed a diet of Coronation Street and Dickie Davies's Saturday afternoon grapple and groan as a kid, but otherwise my hoofer doofer seems to be allergic to ITV.

The Princess Di thing - I was over on a visit from Canada when news broke of her demise. I never really understood at the time why she originally hooked herself up with an older but very rich if not very good looking bloke with ears like wingnuts, when a skinny and skint bloke like me with a big nose and a penchant for standing in The Cowshed every other Saturday was still available and further more, in her age range. As Jim Bowen would later go on to say - "Look at what you could have won". I'm sure I would have been careful with her family's millions, being a died in t'wool Yorkshire lad. I'd have splashed out on a season ticket a few seasons earlier though than I eventually did. She might have turned her nose up at my Moggy Marina too.

[Lord Snooty]

Nice one, jjamez.

Eaves did get a red card against us, not at the JSS though. It was at Hull, I think it was for two bad fouls on Lewis O'Brien.The second yellow definitely was. We went on to beat the ten men 1-0 in a big result on the way to the Play Offs.

As for the Alan Carr programme. I've watched the first series and am two episodes into the second. I think it's really good and the young lad playing young Alan plays a really good part. Alan himself, keeps popping up in the background throughout to explain what's going on. Worth a watch if you like him.

[theo_luddite]

Been full of cold all week so having the weekend off. The lawns done afore it pees it down so at least that's out of the way. Time for a beer and a listen to Radio L666s, if they've got us on.

[Lord Snooty]

Town’s team vs Northampton Town

1. Lee Nicholls

2. Lasse Sorensen

5. Michał Helik

6. Jonathan Hogg ©

7. Callum Marshall

8. Ben Wiles

10. Josh Koroma

15. Jaheim Headley

21. Antony Evans

23. Nigel Lonwijk

32. Tom Lees

Substitutes

Jacob Chapman; Matty Pearson, Bojan Radulović, Herbie Kane, Brodie Spencer, Freddie Ladapo, Joe Hodge

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Mbete in the Northampton starting line up.

[theo_luddite]

They've got L666s on, looks like time to buy a match pass.

[jjamez]

Apparently a website called fawasports or something is good for watching games

[theo_luddite]

Well that was a faff.

It took two attempts to pay for it and about 10 attempts including 4 after a full reboot to to get it to work instead of asking me to pay again.

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Bitdefender loves that website jjamez.

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Think we just had about 1 weeks worth of rain in about 20-30 minutes down here. It's starting to brighten up again now. It's heading east rather than north so if you're north of Derby you should be OK.

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Well Helik finally scored ....

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The good news is Smogport are losing 0-2 at home to Orient. I seem to have picked a good there in the prediction league.

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It gets worse

[jjamez]

Helik and lees, slow and overrated. Neither can play out from the back, yet every manager bar Warnock asked them to

[Lord Snooty]

Funny old game. Best team in the league one week then booed off at half time in the next.