The bells and whistles promotion thread

[Carver]

Well the slick passing football produced ONE shot on goal in the 90 odd minutes but our hoofball got lucky again for the 21st time this season.
It was disgraceful, at Brisbane Rd, where Ricky Holmes was trying hoof it out of the ground but it flew into the top corner

So are Northampton going to fill their squad with good experienced L1 players next season? Because the team they have now may be great for L2 but these guys will simply not hack it in the league above and will end up coming back down with you or just scatter out to various other L2 clubs.

I can also see Wilder getting snapped up by a bigger club in the summer but he'll no doubt fail as it will be too far above his level of coaching and he'll end up back down here too!

 

[Nelza82]

Fair few of the players could cut it in L1.

4 or 5 additions in the summer and we will be just fine.

 

[Carver]

Fair few of the players could cut it in L1.

4 or 5 additions in the summer and we will be just fine.

Only well run clubs who are set up right behind the scenes can cope in L1, as for on the field being plucky and hoping for scrappy and lucky deflected goals off of long balls and corners just won't work for you up there.

 

[EricSabin]

Only well run clubs who are set up right behind the scenes can cope in L1, as for on the field being plucky and hoping for scrappy and lucky deflected goals off of long balls and corners just won't work for you up there.

Wum wum

 

[Deepcut Cobbler]

So are Northampton going to fill their squad with good experienced L1 players next season? Because the team they have now may be great for L2 but these guys will simply not hack it in the league above and will end up coming back down with you or just scatter out to various other L2 clubs.

I can also see Wilder getting snapped up by a bigger club in the summer but he'll no doubt fail as it will be too far above his level of coaching and he'll end up back down here too!

To be honest, we won't be expecting much IF we go up. We are used to bouncing between the two and where we have spent the majority of our history. We know our limitations, we don't pretend to be a bigger club than we are. As much as you fish, you won't find many who seriously act the 'billy big bollox'. The aim will be to stay for more than one season...keep our place warm for when we return.

 

[Carver]

To be honest, we won't be expecting much IF we go up. We are used to bouncing between the two and where we have spent the majority of our history. We know our limitations, we don't pretend to be a bigger club than we are. As much as you fish, you won't find many who seriously act the 'billy big bollox'. The aim will be to stay for more than one season...keep our place warm for when we return.

Sort your finances out as well maybe?

 

[Deepcut Cobbler]

Why, what's wrong with our finances?

 

[Carver]

Why, what's wrong with our finances?

Did you not know? Your club is £10million in debt and on the brink of extinction.

 

[Barton Cobbler]

Did you not know? Your club is £10million in debt and on the brink of extinction.

That's SOOOOO last year

 

[GEORGE]

Northampton on what I've seen are easily good enough for the Third division. I can see them with a couple of additions finishing in the top 10 next season.

 

[Deepcut Cobbler]

Did you not know? Your club is £10million in debt and on the brink of extinction.

The club isn't/wasn't in debt for £10m, it was under threat of extinction but for a figure a lot less than that. That has now been settled and we are as close to extinction as the majority of lower league clubs. I am not sure, in your world, whether that includes Carlisle?

 

[Nelza82]

Did you not know? Your club is £10million in debt and on the brink of extinction.

Poor attempt.

 

[Carver]

The club isn't/wasn't in debt for £10m, it was under threat of extinction but for a figure a lot less than that. That has now been settled and we are as close to extinction as the majority of lower league clubs. I am not sure, in your world, whether that includes Carlisle?

We're only £1.8 million in debt I think, but I didn't know your troubles had been settled, I just kept on hearing people saying how unbelievable it was how well your team was doing considering having big financial problems.

Oh well though if it's been sorted out then that's great, I just thought there was something fishy going on as how you were getting good players to join your club if you were supposed to be in big trouble.

 

[Aber gas]

Northampton on what I've seen are easily good enough for the Third division. I can see them with a couple of additions finishing in the top 10 next season.

I'd agree with that, in Holmes, O'toole and Richards they have some real quality. Their confidence should also be sky high after dominating this season and momentum can go a long way especially early season.

 

[daviejones]

Top 4 look cut off now, up to everyone from 5th down to us in 12th to fight for the remaining 3 play-off places. Given our games in hand and who they're against I'd say the only two teams who are safely above us are Portsmouth with their goal difference and Bristol Rovers. Wimbledon are in the next best position with games in hand on most but we have a game in hand on them and are two points behind - worth bearing in mind that one of the games in hand we've got is against Hartlepool at home which should really be a free win, already beat them in monkey land this season and with it being sort of a rivalry as well as being against pie-face Paynter I would expect us to be well up for it.

 

[Soup Ladle]

Famous last words. I'd also expect us to be up for it too but no doubt you'd be favourites. Don't count your chickens just yet. We may well go down but that is one of our very very hard end of season run-in games I wouldn't totally write off.

 

[ThisTinpotLeague]

If you saw our second half performance today, you'd say we didn't stand a chance. Beyond awful and outplayed by an Accrington side missing all their key players. Based on this, they were comfortably good enough to get third.

We look very, very vulnerable.

 

[EricSabin]

Toughest three games of the season, Orient and Oxford away then Wycombe at home. 9 points. Unreal side!

Pompey really stuttering and Oxford look very vulnerable, apparently players looking knackered without anyone to replace them.

 

[daviejones]

Can't wait for Northampton to come up here in March on a 358 game winning streak and concede a 94th minute Asamoah equaliser, it's written in the stars.

 

[EricSabin]

Can't wait for Northampton to come up here in March on a 358 game winning streak and concede a 94th minute Asamoah equaliser, it's written in the stars.

I'll be so drunk I can barely see and I love Del Boy, I'll most probably cheer.

 

[StagsForLife]

Can't you lot just lose a game? I suppose all we can do is keep getting points and see what the rest of you lot do with the games in hand. Tough win today but we got it.

 

[iWomble]

I'm starting to actually think we may be in with a shout with 6 wins from 7 games. The next 5 (Carlisle H, Oxford H, Cobblers A, Stanley H, Bristol Rovers A) may see us run out of town with our tails between our legs though.

 

[Vanni]

It's anybody guess who makes the play offs this year, and squad depth could well be the defining factor. It's that time of the season when players get injured more easily, and those sides without adequate replacements will struggle. I'm also noticing that some sides in/around the p.o. positions get better results when they're playing away, and that could be important too, as in that case any perceived home advantage in the upcoming fixtures counts for nought. What I sure know is that all sides look inconsistent, except the Cobblers of course, and to a certain extent Plymouth and Accrington. Oxford looked a sure bet for the autos a few weeks back, but not anymore. Then there's Pompey, and I wouldn't be surprised if they fail to make the top 7, even though we all know the calibre of their squad, but they draw far too many games.

As for the U's, Carlisle and Orient, I think the amount of goals they concede will be their undoing. I'm not a believer of the 'score more goals than the opponents and you'll be fine' thing.

 

[Womble98]

We went up to 7th at one point today and now are back in 10th. Massive games coming up, Carlisle on Tuesday.

 

[daviejones]

It's anybody guess who makes the play offs this year, and squad depth could well be the defining factor. It's that time of the season when players get injured more easily, and those sides without adequate replacements will struggle. I'm also noticing that some sides in/around the p.o. positions get better results when they're playing away, and that could be important too, as in that case any perceived home advantage in the upcoming fixtures counts for nought. What I sure know is that all sides look inconsistent, except the Cobblers of course, and to a certain extent Plymouth and Accrington. Oxford looked a sure bet for the autos a few weeks back, but not anymore. Then there's Pompey, and I wouldn't be surprised if they fail to make the top 7, even though we all know the calibre of their squad, but they draw far too many games.

As for the U's, Carlisle and Orient, I think the amount of goals they concede will be their undoing. I'm not a believer of the 'score more goals than the opponents and you'll be fine' thing.

To be fair, we've only conceded 3 goals in our last 5 league games. Early in the season this would've been a fair criticism but I'd say our problems have flipped now in that we're struggling to score goals and are relatively solid in defence (although today could have been a much different story with regards to goals conceded).

For us it's about getting a bit of confidence going forward, we've got solid players like Wyke and Ibehre who can grind out a result but I just get the feeling that when we get a bit of confidence we'll start seeing the best of players like Gilliead who, as we saw against Exeter, can win games single handedly. When we score first you can see us immediately improve and start sending players forward, but our undoing if anything will be that it takes a scrappy goal for us to look like scoring.

 

[BelizeHatter]

No offense or WUMs intended as it's a touchy subject to some. But. Why are the Northampton crowds so crappy? Flying with god knows how many wins on the trot, creaming the League probably towards breaking records and only getting less than 5k today for a top of the table clash? The three sides must be bigger than that arent they? I've been away a while and the Cobblers have been above our Station for ages but I thought I remembered them having good crowds. A worry for the Leagues above and being able to hack it with the big boys?

 

[AdamStag]

All we can do is win games like we did today and hope it evens itself out in our favour from games in hand.

The top 3 seem pretty sorted bar some miracle, but the race for the playoffs is anyone's.

 

[EricSabin]

No offense or WUMs intended as it's a touchy subject to some. But. Why are the Northampton crowds so crappy? Flying with god knows how many wins on the trot, creaming the League probably towards breaking records and only getting less than 5k today for a top of the table clash? The three sides must be bigger than that arent they? I've been away a while and the Cobblers have been above our Station for ages but I thought I remembered them having good crowds. A worry for the Leagues above and being able to hack it with the big boys?

Was a sell out today and since before Christmas I think every game bar one has been a home sellout. Where we can we've split the away end and had home fans in there, because obviously we have no East Stand. Annoying because it's lost money and we can't see what crowds we could have been getting.

 

[AdamStag]

Was a sell out today and since before Christmas I think every game bar one has been a home sellout. Where we can we've split the away end and had home fans in there, because obviously we have no East Stand. Annoying because it's lost money and we can't see what crowds we could have been getting.

What's the plan with that stand?

 

[EricSabin]

What's the plan with that stand?

Chairman still trying to figure out plans with the builders to get the most out of the shell that remains.