Northampton Town F.C.

Northampton Town

Full name	Northampton Town Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Cobblers
Founded	1897
Ground	Sixfields Stadium Northampton (Capacity: 7,653)
Chairman	David Cardoza
Manager	Ian Sampson
League	League Two
2008–09	League One, 21st (relegated)
Home colours Away colours

Northampton Town Football Club is a football club based in Northampton. The nickname of the club is The Cobblers. In the 2008-09 season they played in Football League One, the third level of English football, after promotion in 2005-06, but were relegated to Football League Two on the final day of the season.

The team play their home fixtures at the Sixfields Stadium since moving from the County Ground in October 1994. Their current sponsor is local Estate agents, Jackson Grundy. They usually play in claret, yellow and white, and their main local rivals are Peterborough United, a rivalry which has endured since the 1960s.^[1]

History

Early days

Northampton Town was founded in 1897 after meetings between the town’s schoolteachers and local solicitor A.J. Darnell. At the time schoolboy football was strong in the county due in part to the enthusiasm of the local teachers. They were however dissatisfied with the current arrangement of arranged friendlies between schools preferring to teach the boys through practical examples and they felt this could be done by forming a town team. At the same time A.J. Darnell travelled to Leicester with the local Rugby team and whilst there witnessed an exhibition football match between Leicester Fosse and Notts County. This gave him the desire to start his own club in Northampton. Mr Darnell and the local schoolteachers came together through their shared aims and on 6 March 1897, at the Princess Royal Inn on the Wellingborough Road, Northampton Football Club was formed. ^[2] Following objections from the town’s rugby club the team were forced to adopt the name of Northampton Town to avoid trouble.^[3] The club gained permission to play home matches at the county ground, home of Northamptonshire County Cricket Club, providing that no games were scheduled between May and September, and this was to remain their home for the next 97 years. Their first proper real game was against Earls Barton f.c.

Northampton Town joined the Northants League and spent two seasons there before moving on to the Midland League. Only two seasons later they joined the Southern League in the 1901-02 season. In the 1908-09 season manager Herbert Chapman helped the Cobblers to be crowned champions of the Southern League, and they later faced Newcastle United in the Charity Shield at Stamford Bridge where they lost 2-0 .^[4] Herbert Chapman left to manage Leeds City in 1912, and went on to win the league championship four times: twice at Huddersfield Town, and twice at Arsenal. ^[5]

20th Century

In 1910, Northampton Town bought Walter Tull from Tottenham Hotspur. Tull was the second professional black footballer in English football, and stayed with Northampton Town until the outbreak of the First World War, when he volunteered for the British Army. Tull was killed in action in 1918 and the road which leads to Northampton's Sixfields Stadium is called "Walter Tull Way", in his honour.^[6]

From the 1930s to the 1950s Northampton Town had attempted to rise from the regional Third Division South, but were promoted only twice and were immediately relegated. They played their only season of their existence in the top division of English football when they reached the First Division in 1965-66. Northampton had been promoted from the Fourth Division to the First Division in the sapce of 5 seasons but were then relegated back to the Fourth Division by 1969-70. In 1970, they lost 8-2 to Manchester United in the FA Cup fifth round. Six of the goals conceded were scored by George Best, who received the match ball (signed by Northampton players) as a reward for his performance.

A financial crisis at the club led to the foundation of Britain's first Supporters' Trust.^[7]

The club finished bottom of the Football League's new Division Three in 1993-94, only avoiding relegation to the Conference because Kidderminster Harriers did not have a satisfactory stadium to join the Football League. Manager John Barnwell was sacked soon afterwards to make way for Ian Atkins, and the club began to move forward. In 1996-97 they won promotion to Division Two, thanks to a playoff final victory at Wembley over Swansea City. In a dramatic finale to the game, left back John Frain scored a retaken 93rd-minute free kick to send the side up. Northampton almost made it two successive promotions the following season, but were beaten 1-0 by Grimsby Town in the Division Two playoff final. The club went down a year later and Atkins resigned, but promotion was earned at the first attempt under new manager Kevin Wilson.

21st Century

Kevin Wilson was sacked in November 2001 to make way for his assistant Kevan Broadhurst, who steered the Cobblers to Division Two survival. But Broadhurst was sacked in January 2003 with Northampton struggling at the foot of the division, and was briefly replaced by Terry Fenwick, who in turn left after just seven weeks to make way for Martin Wilkinson. Wilkinson lasted little longer, being dismissed in October 2003 in favour of former Scotland and Tottenham Hotspur defender Colin Calderwood.

Calderwood led Northampton to the play-offs in his first season, where they were knocked out in the semi-finals by Mansfield Town after a penalty shoot-out. In the 2004-05 season, Northampton finished 7th, again in the play-offs, where they were defeated by Southend United. Following this, the manager made substantial changes to the squad, and they enjoyed a successful 2005-06 league season. On 29 April, the Cobblers clinched promotion to Football League One for 2006-07, with a 1-0 win at home to Chester City. On 30 May 2006, Northampton announced that Calderwood was leaving to join Nottingham Forest as their new manager, and was replaced by John Gorman on 5 June.

On 20 December, Gorman resigned due to "personal issues" with the side 18th in the table, with Ian Sampson and Jim Barron briefly taking care of first team affairs. He was replaced by former Southampton boss Stuart Gray on 2 January 2007.

The club finished 14th at the end of the 2006/07 season, 12 points clear from the relegation zone. Gray made radical changes selling Bradley Johnson and allowing Andy Kirk to leave on a free transfer to Yeovil.

The 2007-2008 season brought Northampton's highest finish in a decade, as they finished ninth with 66 points. ^[8]. However, the following season was less successful and the Cobblers, finishing twenty-first with 49 points and were relegated to League Two. After an uninspiring performance in the next season, it was announced on the 8th September 2009 that Stuart Gray had departed the club. Ian Sampson took over the club on a temporary basis and was appointed as permanent manager until the end of the season on the 5th October.^[9]

Stadiums

County Ground

Northampton moved to the county ground in 1897,^[10] however the ground was already in use by the local cricket team Northamptonshire County Cricket Club. Due to the ground being used for cricket, there were only 3 stands. The main stand was situated along side Abington Avenue and was a covered stand that had seating to the rear and terracing to the front. The stand survived until 1985, but following the Bradford City Disaster, it was deemed to be unsafe and then demolished, leaving only the terracing behind. This was then replaced by a small temporary stand nicknamed by the fans as the ' Meccano Stand '. The other two stands were at the ends with the Spion Cop usually for away supporters which only reached the goalposts and the Hotel End for the home supporters.

Sixfields

The club then moved to Sixfields Stadium in 1994.^[11]

Training ground

Adjacent to the stadium joining onto the back of the East Stand with its own small stand is the training ground but its main purpose is for athletics.

Current squad

As of 13 November 2009.^[12][13]

No. Position Player 1 GK Chris Dunn 2 DF Paul Rodgers 3 DF John Johnson (on loan from Middlesbrough) 4 MF Luke Guttridge 5 DF Craig Hinton (Captain) 6 DF Dean Beckwith 7 MF Josh Walker (on loan from Middlesbrough) 8 MF Abdul Osman 9 FW Steve Guinan 10 FW Adebayo Akinfenwa 11 DF Andy Holt 12 MF Ryan Gilligan 13 GK Paul Walker

No. Position Player 14 MF Liam Davis 15 MF Alex Dyer 16 FW Gary Mulligan 17 FW Billy McKay 19 DF John Curtis 20 DF Chris McCready 21 MF Michael Jacobs 22 FW Courtney Herbert 23 DF Peter Gilbert 24 FW Seb Harris 26 GK Simon Brown 40 DF Pat Kanyuka

Out on loan

No. Position Player 18 FW Joe Benjamin (at Eastbourne Borough until 9 December 2009)

Coaching staff

Position	Staff
Manager	Ian Sampson
Assistant Manager	Malcolm Crosby
Youth Team Manager	Sean Parrish
Physiotherapist	Stuart Barker
Head of Youth	Geoff Harrop

Last updated: 9 October 2009
Source: Northampton Town

Managers

Club honours

• Second Division Runners-Up (1964-65)
• Third Division (South) Runners-Up (1927-28), (1949-50)
• Third Division Champions (1962-63)
• Fourth Division Runners-Up (1975-76)
• Fourth Division Champions (1986-87)
• Division Three Play-Off Winners (1996-97)
• Division Three Third Place (Promoted) (1999-2000)
• League Two Runners-Up (2005-06)
• Southern Football League Champions (1908-09)

Club records

• Most League goals in a Season - 36 - Cliff Holton - 1961-62

• Most League goals in Total - 135 - Jack English - 1947-60
• Most League Appearances - 521 - Tommy Fowler - 1946-61
• Most Clean Sheets in a Season - 25 - Lee Harper and Mark Bunn - 2005-06
• Most Capped Player - Edwin Lloyd-Davies (Wales) 12
• Oldest Player - Edwin Lloyd-Davies 42
• Youngest Player - Adrian Mann 16 years and 297 days v Bury 5 May 1984
• Record Transfer Fee Received - £470,000 for Mark Bunn from Blackburn Rovers on 1 September 2008
• Record Transfer Fee Paid - £165,000 to Oldham Athletic for Josh Low in 2003
• Record Attendance at County Ground - 24,523 vs. Fulham 1965-66 Division One
• Record Attendance at Sixfields 7,557 vs. Manchester City 1998-99 Division Two

Most appearances Name Career Appearances 1 Tommy Fowler 1946–61 552 2 Ian Sampson 1993–2004 449 3 Peter Gleasure 1982–91 412 4 Edwin Freeman 1905–21 363 5= Joe Kiernan 1963–71 352 5= William Watson 1920–28 352 7 Phil Chard 1985–93 330 8 Edwin Lloyd-Davies 1907–20 329 9= Leonard Hammond 1924–32 327 9= Roly Mills 1954–63 327 10 Jack English 1947–59 321

Most goals Name Career Goals 1 Jack English 1947–59 143 2 Eddie Bowen 1927-31 120 3 William Lockett 1914–26 110 4 Bert Dawes 1929–33 103 5 Frank Large 1962-63, 1966-67, 1969-72 96 6 Tommy Wells 1926–34 93 7 Albert Lewis 1908–13 90 8 Tommy Fowler 1946–61 88 9 Ralph Hoten 1924–29 84 10 Don Martin 1962-67, 1975-77 82

Shirt sponsors and manufacturers

References

External links

Official

• Northampton Town F.C. - Official Website
• NTFC Trust - Supporters Ltd.

News and Statistics

• Northampton Town F.C. on BBC Sport: Club News – Recent results – Upcoming fixtures – Club stats

• BBC Radio Northampton - Interviews and Match Reports from BBC Radio Northampton Sport
• Football Ground Guide - Information on Sixfields Stadium
• Soccerbase - Managerial History
• Historical Kits - Graphical Kit History
• Every match result and League table since they joined the Football League

Supporters Trust

• Fresh Players, New Tactics: Lessons from Northampton Town Supporters Trust published by The Football Governance Research Centre