The Hotel End

https://www.efl.com/news/2020/august/202021-season-dates-confirmed-across-the-efl/
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12048348/carabao-cup-to-kick-off-efl-season-first-four-rounds-to-be-played-in-september

I’d imagine a lot will use the first round as an extra friendly!

Cardiff meh

Cameron McWilliams

Home draw so can't complain...

Another good pre season friendly!

Does this mean we won’t win it this year?

Another South Wales club...

Last time in the same round and competition, we beat them...but yes!  ;D

Paul Merson made the draw and said KC has done a great job here and sees this as a potential upset.

Paul Merson has the IQ of a cucumber.

So that will be why Sky Sports pay Paul Merson to appear on their Soccer Saturday and other programmes to give his expert opinion. Matt Le Tissier, Charlie Nicholas and Phil Thompson must also be intellectually challenged.
I think the "IQ of a cucumber" would be better appropriated to certain posters on here who continually spout there negativity, after all many have had their fill of humble pie after doubting KC last season.

Why are you not paid large sums of money by Sky Sports for your opinions?

Your IQ is therefore a ****?

No more so than the happy clappers who think everything is great. Like with most things the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Merson Is clearly a nice guy and his frequent gaffs and inability to remember and pronounce players names makes him all the more lovable, he’s still as thick as mince.

Can I just ask, did you feel the need to mention he's IQ because he said KC had done a good job or because he said it was a potential shock?

Surely cucumbers are allowed an opinion

They are but it doesn’t make them astute.


The present squad is way weaker than last years 7th in league league two side, so they will get pumped against a Championship team

Cucumber lives matter

So if Mr Merson had said " oh they were lucky to be in the play-offs and they will go straight back down and Cardiff should stick six past them" . Would you have mentioned he's IQ?

A broken clock is correct twice a day so...yes I would because his IQ wouldn’t have changed.

You Telegraphed that.

 :) Bella  :)

;D

https://www.ntfc.co.uk/news/20202/september/310820_cardiff_live/

We have Darren Drysdale in charge who has not reffed us in a long time. In 26 games last season 96 yellows and only 3 reds.
If Charlie Goode makes the Brentford team he had better be careful as they have our favourite ref Charles Breakspear.

Knowing Charlie as we do, it's more likely his opposite number will need to be careful not to react.

Heard on the grapevine that Cardiff are bringing two coach loads of 'the usual faces' and will be holed up early doors in various pubs along the Weedon Road.

Oh the nostalgia!  ;D

Extra revenue for the pubs!!! ;D

Will the hill have a fence down the middle, our boys on one side and the Taffs on the other  :)

6 players away on international duty and 3 other senior players injured,they only have 14 senior players available. The right time to meet them when we havent completed recruiting.

We havent really signed anyone good.
0-3 Sheep
I do have a new ironboard to try out for the game.

The play off semi final.....that was a night to remember  ;D

The first leg at their place was a bit tasty as well, i didn't know it rained bricks and bottles in Wales

And bottles of p1ss.. what lovely people the soul crew are.

I see that super sams cramp has now turned into a hamstring injury, surprise surprise.

Only took 6 days to admit what we all knew anyway......and only now is he being sent for a scan!

No Adams or Hoskins. Pro debut for Rocky perhaps?

I think he may go with Lines?
Manny’s team:
                      Arnold
Marshall.   Horsfall. Racic.  Bolger.  Mills.
       Watson.  Missilou. Lines.
             Nuttall.       Smith.

We have very little creativity in that line up, that’s why I put Lines in.
           

     
 

I expect Harriman to start and Marshall coming off the bench which will not not be very strong.

Why is everyone so negative and worrying
We will easily beat Cardiff

KT is even as we speak sanctioning KC to bring in a couple of quality strikers I’m sure of it.
KC said he had a couple turning up on Monday.
I imagine everything has been kept hush hush all week so we can have a fanfare for our marquee signing later on today.
I’d say it’s highly unlikely we are going to be starting the match tomorrow without a couple of decent strikers.
They’ve been working on things all week and I’d imagine nugent been banging them in during training and even maybe Callum Morton.

Be more positive like me  ;D

We are in good hands and they are probably dusting off the sixfields pen even as we speak....

As an aside I see that a league one club has put a derisory offer for one of their strikers.
It will be interesting to see who it was , obviously not us as we have cash ready for KC to spend.

I wonder if we will have a proper twitter launch for our new signing rather than the standard announcement.

I’m very excited but it’d be handy to know what time the announcement will be due just so I can rush to the club to get a home kit emblazoned with the star players name.

Nugent
Morton
Pitman
All six letters so shouldn’t be too costly

Come on cobblers announce it early so there’s not a big queue at the shop.

Buzzing

Come on cobblers you are the best.

Haha Shoey!!

The "couple of strikers" are Korboa and Nuttall

Anyone signed today is now too late to be registered to play in the game tomorrow anyway, so we go with what we've got.

Don’t be so negative
We have money to sign players as other posters keep informing us
Do you really think we are going to start the season with a player signed from seven levels below and a striker who has failed to show that he is a force in this division??

This isn’t your local Sunday league club
We have owners and a manager that know what is needed at the higher division and they have known for ages that quality is needed and have said as much.

I’m very excited to see who our star players will be.

There’s plenty of league one teams who have rushed in and signed the quality they need but they are all wrong.
They will learn their lessons at the end of the season when we have gained promotion and can also brag to other fans about our good housekeeping.

It is something that as a club we should be putting at the forefront of the forthcoming season.

Other teams may have got better quality players but we’ve got proper housekeeping and even at 4-0 down at sixfields on  a cold February night nothing would make me more proud of the club than our housekeeping.

That will do for me as I look across at the rapid progress on our redevelopment and I can pinch myself to think how lucky we are as fans to have owners with the finance to redevelop the ground out of their own pockets with only minimal delay.

Not every club can say they have owners like ours.
Yes they may have on field success with players who fire the imagination but look around their grounds and see how they compare to ours and that’s without mentioning the good housekeeping.

Others may avoid relegation
Others may even gain promotion and win trophies but when it comes to the football leagues good housekeeping award there will only be one winner

It brings a tear to my eye thinking of it already and if we do come up short and go straight back down I do hope the club will enable fans to have their photo taken with a set of the clubs last accounts and any good housekeeping trophies we may be awarded

Exciting times ahead
Strap yourselves in

Come on cobblers you are the best.

Just a reminder.... one game, no replays, no extra time...... scores level after 90 mins its straight to penalties.

The draw for the second and third round will be made together on Sunday 6th, with matches to be played over the midweeks of 15/16 September and 22/23 September.

Second round unseeded but still regionalised, third round draw will be neither seeded or regionalised.

Just as a side note, have you seen the prize money for this competition? it’s pi55 poor.

Carabao (League Cup) prize money has always been poor.....

Stange though that the EFL Trophy carries a £10,000 per game win bonus whereas the EFL Cup is only £5,000 in the first round!

Been reduced to the 2017-18 figures...

For the FA Cup......

Extra Preliminary Round right through to fourth qualifying round the prize money has been reduced by a half, from the fourth round proper to the final again its reduced by a half, but for winning rounds 1,2 and 3 its reduced less than 40%

I’m not sure I can recall a more ineffective (on paper) front 3 than smith, Korboa and warburton - a massive opportunity for all 3 though I suppose.

Bit harsh on Korboa as he has never played league football before, but certainly agree with the other two.

As case of needs must but would rather an extra midfielder than see Warburton on the pitch, he couldn't hack the pace of L2 let alone anything better than that.

Arnold in goal,
Rakic, Bolger and Horsfall across the back
Harriman and Mills as the wing backs
Watson, Missilou in the middle with Warburton in front
Smith and Korboa up front

Subs are Mitchell, Martin, Ballinger, Lines, Marshall, Roberts and Johnson

Unavailable are Nuttall, Hoskins, Adams, McWilliams and Pollock

Fair enough about Korboa but I didn’t even notice he was playing in the 2 friendlies. Looking at Cardiff’s lineup it might be the case that they are missing some players but they still look very strong - some massive centre backs (even with flint on the bench) so set pieces should be interesting.

It’s hard to remember a time (I can’t) when we had a worse attack than Smith, Warburton & Korboa

The Korbmeister starts
Smith and Warble as well

I've got a very bad feeling about this one

How many garments will the new ironing board see today?

I have a feeling I’ve wasted a tenner, I honestly reckon if I played I’d be the 2nd best attacker on the pitch

Only 4 I'm afraid. I spent all night cleaning the board for today's game as well.

Haha! I take it back  ;D

Cleaning the ironing board?? Whatever next?  ;D

Well done KC and the team. Encouraging games by the new recruits.

No sign of the 'doom mongers' Manwork and Shoemaker.....what a suprise!

KC intermated striker, midfielder and central defender are being targeted.

Very well played .
Certainly a surprise to me but fair enough !

In fairness to Manny, think you need to check the match thread  ;) ;D

Thanks Dan, top man as usual.

You’ve made yourself look a right 🔔 end.  ;D

I make my judgement on your trend of tens of negative postings not your hiccup of blowing with the wind opinion!

Thanks for that performance lads, now I can have a relaxing Sunday evening, roll a fat one and watch Brentford v Wycombe (6pm here) and the draw afterwards.

Interested to see the new stadium, maybe see Toney, Goode and Bayo on the same pitch? The football world has a lot to thank Northampton for!

Can I add Cardiff we’re missing 9 first team players but a good result against a decent Cardiff squad

mr3teas = norThampTon Town ??!!

Yes I am a cobblers supporter and sth

Refreshing read from the opposition media!

WalesOnline: Northampton Town 3-0 Cardiff City: Desperate Bluebirds dumped out of Carabao Cup after woeful display.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/northampton-cardiff-carabao-cup-result-18879147

Thks Coolie - well they were right about how bad Cardiff were!

2nd Round;

Bristol City away. Not the most exciting but we still have a chance with the right attitude.

Followed by Burton or Villa at home after beating Bristol City.

Read Coolies post and link to Cardiff match report!

Bristol City away in next round Could be worse but not by much...

Yep that pretty much sums it up

So what would have excited you?
Maybe a Prem team, containing eleven youngsters that you've never heard of? Maybe even away, at an iconic stadium...that you can't visit anyway!

Given the nearest you can get to a game is I-Follow, which by many accounts is a shocker, really can't get what those moaning about drawing Bristol City expect!

We've won our last three 'away' games...  ;)

This.

The draw is almost meaningless, although a game on proper TV would have been nice.

Got as good a chance of beating these as anyone really. Ground I've not been to so shame there's no fans allowed. Hope we win.

I see that Charles Breakspear had his red card out today at Brentford in his first game of the season. As did Trevor Kettle yesterday.

Comment on the Bristol City forum after drawing us in round 2 "they'r direct and physical get ready for a battle". I think we might give them one.

Wed 16th Sep 2020
Bristol City (First Team) v Northampton Town FC (First Team)
EFL Cup   
Referee: Johnson, Kevin
Assistant Referee: Marks, Louis
Assistant Referee: Ogles, Samuel
Fourth Official: Morris, Kevin

It's in the bag.

In your laundry bag for ironing?  ;D

Can't make this...but will be in Bristol on October 3rd!  ;)

Tom Nield refereeing who was last in charge of us in our 0-1 home defeat to Swindon in February.
Cannot see much change to our injury situation before Wednesday, maybe Nuttall could feature and Sam to get more game time so he is ready to start on Saturday.

4-0 to the Robins.

Anyone know why this game is on Wednesday as opposed to the normal Tuesday ?

I think it is normal for this cup to have a split fixture list across Tuesday and Wednesday, at least in the early rounds

I thought that in other years games not played on Tuesday were switched for TV or, say, Nottm Forest and Notts C were both drawn at home.

Bristol City usually play their midweek home games on wednesday. Most teams prefer tuesday but a few prefer wednesday.

Let's hope many more of us can too!

Not the way things are going? What this rumour that all 20 - 45 will be curfewed after 5pm from this Saturday. Team Sports people not affected.

Burton lead the Villa 1-0....the winners of that play the winners of our game....

Lincoln 4-0 up at Bradford at half time - Morton not on score sheet. According to bbc stats Lincoln have had 33% possession, 0 corners, 2 shots both on target this does not appear to make sense as only 1 goal is an og.

Vadaine Oliver won the injury time penalty from which Gillingham scored to equalise against Coventry, the Gills then went on to win the shoot-out too scoring all five pens.

Morton gets 5th for Lincoln

Grealish makes it 1-2 Villa.

A bit more incentive to beat City then, the prospect of Aston Villa in the next round.

i've got a very bad feeling about the Brizzy game.

I've not, because I'm not expecting anything from it... ;)

Problem is that the usual incentive to advance in the cup is gate receipts. No fans presumably = no boost in revenue whether you're playing Aston Villa or Accrington. 

Whoever told them that black is slimming is a lier

I do wonder how much longevity there is in the Carabo Cup, I’m definitely starting to lose interest in seeing premier league reserve teams easily beating league teams.