Absolutely, this is a very important block that we are in.

There was a point on Saturday when we led against Wigan and the live table had us just 7 points off the top 6 and I was daring to dream.....three days later we are 12 points off....it really can change that quickly! It can change back just as quickly though, we've only got to overtake three more teams.

Bear in mind that ASLEF called a rail strike yesterday so it is highly likely there will be no trains between Northampton/Milton Keynes on any operator

I think he made 2 starts and then the rest off the bench.

Definitely in the "impact sub" category. His two starts were in his last two games for Derby, the first nine appearances were as a sub, normally for the last 15-20 minutes or so. This season has seen a similar pattern with Springett coming off the bench for the last 20 mins or so, often to replace Rowe after he's burned himself out!

Like I said Nigel, I haven't seen the letter, so who would the Trust be pursuing?

Me neither.....damn!

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They have just signed Luke Chambers….no not that one, but the one from Liverpool, a left back who has made a few appearances for the Reds in the Europa League this season.

With regards to the travelling support, don’t forget that probably every Wigan supporter there is shelled out for their cup game on Monday…..

Is it odd, considering our form and position?

Not unexpected by me.... pretty safe from relegation and not geared up for Championship football. This season was a season of consolidation in League 1...we seem to have achieved that already so why change things?

Unless some of the big players/high earners go, either snapped up by bigger clubs thanks to their good form (Hoskins, McWilliams) or a decent players recalled by the parent club (Leonard) we're just about set fair for a mid table finish in this league.

I can only speak for here. The answer would be a resounding yes. Quite frequently, and sometimes at public meetings where you have personally witnessed my thoughts. With the current owners we have been successful in maintaining a meaningful dialogue, even when disagreeing on certain things. We have not had to bite our tongue, but realised the value of constructive criticism where we thought it was necessary. We have never been dictated to by the club, or even told how we should think. Unlike our experience with certain other parties.

So I can categorically state that we are going into this not on either side. But as representatives of a supporter led forum. who respects and acknowledges the opinions of its contributors. But equally respects the parameters necessary to achieve fruitful debate and agreed outcomes. As soon as we have a grasp of the format, and the outcomes we can achieve, we will feed back to you all and see what your thoughts are.  

Who is this "we" you speak about? How did you come to the decision as to who the representatives of this forum would be? 

Luke Williams, who led Notts County back to the EFL and currently has them sitting 5th in the table has swapped Nottingham for Swansea and becomes the South Wales side's new Head Coach.

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Cheltenham are the first visitors to Sixfields in 2024. After a disastrous start to the season where they failed to score in their first eleven league games their form has picked up a tad.

They come to us sitting in 22nd position in the league, on 20 points with five wins from their 23 games so far. They have now scored 17 goals, seven of those on their travels whilst picking up two league wins. Their victories have come at Port Vale and Carlisle and they arrive at Sixfields with one defeat in their last five games. Last time out they let a two goal lead slip at home to Reading with both the Royals goals coming in first half stoppage time.
Following that start to the season manager Wade Elliott paid the price with his job, and Darrel Clarke is the new man in charge. Clarke has had spells with Bristol Rovers, Walsall and Port Vale in a near 10 year managerial career, he's picked up those five wins this season in 16 games. After such a barren start to the season they have found the net in all of their last eight league games.

Alfie May has moved on to pastures new, and others have found it hard to pick up the baton however Will Goodwin has scored six league goals to gate. He though limped off early in the game at Carlisle before Christmas.

James Olayinka is the sole Cobblers connection in their squad, the former Arsenal youngster had a loan spell with us in 2020 and eventually joined the Robins on a free, he went off at half time in a Trophy game in November and hasn't been seen since.

The first meeting between the sides came in 1999 and since then our paths have crossed 37 times, Cheltenham have the edge with 15 wins to our 13, they are unbeaten in their last three visits to Sixfields. Their last trip here was for a playoff semi final 1st leg in 2020 played behind closed doors, they won that night 2-0 but of course we turned that round with a 3-0 win at their place to earn our place at Wembley. Before that came a 1-1 league draw in 2019, Jordan Turnbull scoring the Cobblers goal, and in 2018 Kevin Van Veens penalty was all we had to show in a 3-1 Robins win.

Neil Hair will take charge of the game, Hair dished out red cards in three consecutive games earlier this month, those come in a total of 51 yellow and 4 reds in his 15 games to date. We have already seen him this season, he booked six in our 3-0 win at Exeter at the end of September, its his first visit to Sixfields since opening day in 2022 when we went down to Doncaster. He last reffed Cheltenham at the back end of last season overseeing their 3-1 win over Forest Green.

What is it with us and injuries hoskins and McWilliams joining Sherring 3 if the best players out

Not forgetting Appere and his "knock".....

No Hoskins due to "injury"...... or is that code for "we've accepted a bid for him and he'll be off on January 1st"...... 

McWilliams, rested on Boxing Day is also out of the 18 due to injury, Sherring who came off injured on Boxing Day is also out....Burge back in the squad but only on the bench as Thompson keeps his place.

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That scenario has been played out so many times at this club. They did it with Wilson and Gray. Survived under the former, not so fortunate under the latter.

In 2009 on 1st January we were 11th and 7 points clear of the 4th bottom side, on 31st January we were 15th but still 7 points clear of 21st placed Leyton Orient.

This season we are currently also 11th but 11 points clear of 21st placed Reading.....so it would be an even bigger collapse needed for us to find ourselves in the mire once more. Not saying that it couldn't happen but I think its even less likely than that unlikely scenario in 2009.

Nothing is impossible though! Just looking at the league tables from those dates, just 15 years ago..... MK Dons in 2nd place behind Leicester with Scunny third.....Brighton and Hove Albion sitting 20th in League 1! Even more bizarre, looking at the League 2 table on 31st January 2009, the bottom two in the entire Football League were Bournemouth and Luton, both of course now Premier League clubs!!

If we are not really serious about having a go for the top 6, and the fact we’ve probably got enough on the bag already to avoid relegation, where’s the incentive to change things in the window?

We lose Leonard, we don’t win many more games until the end of the season but stay up in 18th or similar….job done and objective achieved this season??

3 central defenders today at the expense of McWilliams.

Any particular reason why Jack is captain today? Is it his birthday?

Amended now on FB...Guthrie wears the armband

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PLEASE lock the topic!

He's earned himself another 2 or three games in my opinion.......

After todays excellent win The Cobblers take their good run of form into a game at another of the top sides in the league......erm.....Stevenage!!

Steve Evans side sit 6th in the table on 40 points, that's the same mark though as 4th placed Derby with 4th to 6th only separated by goal difference. The Boro have only picked up one win from their last six games in all competitions, and fell to a defeat at Barnsley today. They have only been beaten once in the league at their Lamex Stadium, that defeat came against Oxford, however they have only won four times with the other six games ending in draws, points dropped which might prove costly at the end of the season.

Stevenage Borough (as they were called then) only came into existence in 1976 following the demise of the previous Stevenage (Athletic) team, and started out life un the United Counties League. From there they went into the Isthmian League before winning promotion to the Conference in 1994. It was not until 2010 that they hauled themselves into the Football League, finally winning the Conference title after six consecutive top 8 finishes. As I've said before and so often happens to be the case for sides coming out of non-league they won promotion in their first League season, finishing 6th and winning the playoff final against Torquay in front of just over 11000 fans at Old Trafford.
Next season they made the playoffs again, this time being edged out 1-0 on aggregate by Sheffield United in the semi-final. Two seasons later relegation came their way as they finished bottom of the pile in League 1, and after nine seasons in the fourth tier they finished runners up last season and came up alongside us into League 1 once more.

This season has been a bit of an up and down ride for them with good runs followed by poor runs, one win in seven games was followed by six straight wins, which have now been followed by that one win in six run. They are of course managed by the larger than life Steve Evans, he has bagged 50 wins in 98 games since taking over in March last year from Paul Tisdale who had a brief spell winning just three of 21 games at the helm. Evans has now managed over 1100 games in his 25 year career as a manager of teams as diverse as Boston United and Leeds United.

The bulk of their goals this season have come from forward Jamie Read, he's scored 13 of their 33 league goals overall and has helped himself to another four in the Cups.  Kane Hemmings and Jordan Roberts are other forward threats. They have three Thompsons in their squad, defender Nathan and midfielders Ben and Louis.

In the limited head-to-heads between the two sides its fair to say that we have been a bogey side for them, they've only won two of the 18 games between the sides, but lets not forget that one of those came on the opening day of this season when they came along and took the points back to Hertfordshire courtesy of Carl Piergianni's late winner in front of a crowd of 7,049. Their only other win came back in April 2015 when a 90th minute winner saw them take the points in a game which saw Ryan Cresswell sent off for the Cobblers. We have won six of the eight games played including five on the bounce.
Nobody needs reminding of Ricky Holmes 90th minute winner back in 2016 when we won 3-2, followed up in 2019 by a 90th minute winner for Andy Williams when we won 2-1. The following season and still in 2019 Harry Smith both scored and was sent off in our narrow 1-0 win, and in 2022 Aaron McGowan and Mitch Pinnock found the net in our 2-1 win. Last season was another tight affair as we won by the odd goal in five once more, Kieran Bowie and Shaun McWilliams finding the net in the last 10 minutes in a game which saw Danny Rose score for the Boro and Danny Hylton sent off for us.

Will Finnie will be the ref for this one, he's been on the league list since 2019 and has 74 yellow and 4 red cards to his name in the 21 games he's handled so far this season. Stevenage have already seen him once this campaign, he reffed their 2-1 win at Cambridge back in August, we have to go back to December last year when he was in the middle for our goalless home draw with Tranmere.