By Nathan Jackson
July 30 2010

Northampton Town have been rated by some as a team capable of challenging for promotion, but realistically looking at it, they don't really have the quality to break into the top seven. The Cobblers started last season quite poorly before a late run saw them 11th, it was also a season that showed how fickle some of their fans are.

For a long time last season, a fair sized number of Northampton fans went onto various message boards (such as The Football Forum) and said that they would definitely go down under Ian Sampson, however, when Northampton's results improved they quickly went a bit quiet. It resembled the way that Colin Calderwood was treated by a section of the Northampton fans, whom criticised Calderwood for getting them into the Playoffs.

Ian Sampson took over at Sixfields last October and started his permanent managerial career with progression in the JP Trophy and eight points from his first four games, not a bad record at all. However, their 4-2 win at Morecambe was their last win until Boxing Day. That win on Boxing Day was one of twelve wins in eighteen games for the Cobblers. At the end of that run they sat fifth with 62 points. However, just one win in their last seven games saw them plummet six places to 11th and finish on 67 points, five points below the Playoffs.

They did have a decent record of scoring in games though, and only failed to score in ten games under Sampson, again not a bad record. Most of those goals came from the excessively proportioned Adebayo Akinkenwa. The striker, whom is well travelled, was Northampton's leading goalscorer last season. That may have been through defenders being scarred to tackle him just incase he landed on them.

He scored 17 goals from the Cobblers last season and those 17 goals gained the club 9 points. Northampton would have finished 17th without those 9 points. He has now left having reportedly asked for around £4-5000 a week, a figure that seemingly only Gillignham were able to come up with.

On a small side note, in a rather unusual style for a football club, the Cobblers will be returning to their previous crest on the badge that they had ditched in 2006 in favour of a more cartoony style.

Northampton's squad is a decent all around squad, with Craig Hinton as captain and former loan defender John Johnson joining permanently. However, it is with no doubt that Northampton's main hope for the goals will be Tadgh Purcell. The Irishman was brought to England by Steve Staunton at Darlington and seemingly had a one-man-mission to keep Darlington up. He has averaged a goal roughly every three and a half games throughout he career and at the age of 25, is coming into his prime as a striker.

The one thing with Purcell (left) is that although he's a good player, he hasn't really dealt with the pressure in England before. At Darlington they were virtually already down, so Purcell was in a no-lose situation, he would either help them dramatically stay up or they'd go down and no-one would really blame him. At Northampton there will be major pressure though as their fans are seemingly just expecting promotion to happen.

Overall I think that Northampton are one of those sides that start and end the season badly, and this ultimately means the middle section of their season pretty irrelevant as it only really secures them midtable. They're definitely not a bad team but to just expect promotion is a very dangerous game, especially as they're not, on paper, one of the best seven teams in the division.

I think they'll be chasing the Playoffs for most of the season, but much like last season fall off towards the end of the year and finish in a high midtable position.

Northampton aiming high, but is it possible?

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 30/07/2010 08:29

theimps.ka
30/07/2010 08:29

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