I was thinking Pinnock for the same reason but now I'm not sure.   

Pinnock is definitely the pick of the bunch for outfield along with Horsfall.

But when we've been goal shy, which we often have been, Roberts has gained us a hell of a lot of points with vital saves. That one at the end of the Bradford game was incredible.

Liam Roberts by an absolute country mile. We must be about 10 points better off thanks to him.

I appear to be one of the few members that DID get the email

I have to say though, and I have fed this back to the Trust, that only allowing three days for members to come back with feedback/a vote was in no way a sufficient amount of time for something this complex. It's also something that frankly should have been an issue big enough to hold a specific meeting about with the board outlining the pros and cons of invoking it.

As it turns out I missed the deadline due to the short amount of time, so didn't cast a vote. But I can't say that I felt informed enough about what the Trust's plans were in any case to make a vote. I was also not aware - though I'm happy to be proved wrong here (and perhaps Cllr Brown will know the answer) - that because they've invoked the ACV then if they don't get the land at the end of the process then the site overall is lost as an ACV. The original purpose of the Trust board applying for the ACV was not with regard to this pocket of land, but actually to protect and preserve the overall site as a football ground - a process that was started when the possibility of a phoenix club was looking increasingly likely. I hope that protection isn't lost for nothing if this is the case.

Ultimately more people voted in favour of the Trust invoking the ACV and that is the cold hard reality of democracy. On this occasion however, I don't think the vote was handled particularly well.

In the interests of balance however the reaction to this decision has been terribly hysteric. I also don't think the club blaming the Trust for 'delaying' things really carries much weight considering the six years they have had to do literally anything.

Ultimately we've been waiting since 2006 for this, so six months makes no difference to me at this point. But the Trust do now have to deliver a very good plan for that site to make the extra delay worth it. I'm genuinely interested to see what they come up with.

BUMP!

The Cobblers Fans Team are back in action Saturday should anyone want to drop by.

Equally if anyone (or you know of anyone) potentially interested in being involved, feel free to come along and chat to a member of the team.

This season vs. Luton we have won 4-2, won 3-2 & drawn 2-2

Unlike the Cobblers' first team, the fans' team know where the back of the net is at the moment.

A 4-1 win this morning.

As always though, anyone who fancies a game is more than welcome to PM either myself or Corno.

I think when we were 4-2-3-1 with Etete up top, we were easily a top three side. Unfortunately I just don't think we've come anywhere near in replacing his goal threat and I think that will ultimately determine our finishing position. I have some sympathy with JB and CC, as that was a big blow coupled with losing the Head of Recruitment.

Personally I think any chance of automatic has passed as we simply don't score enough - though I hope I'm wrong! We still have a real chance for Play-Offs though if we can scrape a few 1-0 wins.

They gave their all. But we were second best all afternoon yesterday and to only be able to muster a rather tame header at the goalkeeper all second half in a promotion six pointer, as a reaction to being 1-0 down, isn't very good to be honest. Ultimately though Mansfield are just a better side than we are at the moment, and that's all it really boiled down to.

Eppiah for me has to start the next game if he's got 70 minutes in the bank - he was the only player other than Pinnock and Hoskins that looked likely to do anything yesterday.

I think Brady might to go 4-4-2 next game given Lewis will be out. Might be interesting to see if two of our strikers can form a partnership.

Was I mistaken in thinking that last night's meeting was not meant to be about the East Stand and more about the other parts of the matchday experience?
I wish I'd mentioned about moving the bar in Carr's bar to the back wall allowing a hatch to the outside area and creating a bigger area around the pillars.

Yes it was, and in fairness I thought most of the discussion did focus on that. You're never going to avoid an East Stand discussion at some point though and I'm sure the club were aware of that

A winning side attracts more supporters. As you know this happened under Bowen, Carr and Wilder. Inspite of Curles football I could not bring myself (along with many others) not to go and support the Club. Most supporters are happy with a win and meet old acquaintances , have a drink and if needs be reminiscence on former glories. I cannot understand why people say the football is rubbish and then don't go because of it! If we all felt like that there would be no NTFC.
For me Curle is a one time hero for getting us through the play offs and winning at Wembley in front of TV Millions.

For me the difference was having a season ticket.

There were times under Curle when I both had a season ticket and didn't. When I had the season ticket I went regardless. When I didn't, I questioned whether the experience was worth the £24 matchday fee and at times came to the conclusion that I could have more fun doing something else. Had there been a better matchday experience I may not have made that decision, and may have actually brought some of my non-Cobblers friends along.

This is nothing against Curle. He left us in a better place than where he found us and got us a promotion, and for that he gets my respect. My situation could have been equally applicable to plenty of our other managers in recent years, but I had season tickets back then.

Am I alone in that the only match day experience I want is to watch a game of football. Decent seat and toilets is all I need. Then I am very old.

No, of course you're not alone.

But it shouldn't be ignored. For me the football is sometimes the least important part of the day to be honest. I've always seen the Cobblers as a primarily social part of my life. As demonstrated by me once again going to Mansfield away this weekend even though it's a dump and we never win there. But beers in Nottingham and on the train with some like-minded people is too good to miss!

When I didn't have a season ticket and the football we were playing under Curle was crap, the lack of a good matchday experience often turned me away from coming to home games. As soon as I didn't have that obligation to turn up because I'd already paid for it, I started to take things like that much more into consideration.

We'll always have a good 2-3,000 loyal supporters. We need to attract the casual fan to keep growing, and for them the experience either side of the game will be as equally important.

We have our 'KT, DB and (we should throw in the council) out' cheerleaders. Start something and get some traction.
There'll be a requirement for some towels to lay on, as it'll be pretty muddy on that plot. Does anyone know how to source some? 

You know that when someone like the ever positive Fez has some doubts creeping in that the tide is turning.

With regards to the East Stand, I too was concerned to see the 'no stand no land' clause is gone. I also thought Tel gave the club a rather easy and quick way to allay a lot of the fears people may have with the suggestion of signing a written supporters' charter.

So first of all, credit to the club and those involved for putting this on. It was a good idea and a constructive evening. It let a few people including myself vent some of their long held frustrations about the matchday experience. This isn't people being negative for the sake of it, we all want a better experience so we can try and attract more people to spend their cash with the club rather than competing venues on the Sixfields complex. For that to happen the offering needs to massively improve.

In terms of matchday experience there were some good suggestions from both fans and club - more staff at Carr's Bar, having some of said staff pouring pints while others took cash to speed up the time you wait, Happy Hours to get people in earlier, better beer offering, decent food up for grabs, more TVs and inclusion of BT Sport to watch Prem games, an improved Wi-Fi infrastructure ect. There were some explanations as to why some of these things weren't in place already, which was definitely helpful.

The reality is the East Stand is still a way off, and we need to improve the matchday experience for supporters NOW. So I'm hopeful some of those suggestions will be at least trialed and given a good go. They may not work, but I want to see them at least tried, and for the club to really promote that your money is better off in their pockets than somewhere else's.

With regards to the longer term, I asked James Whiting on what proposals the club themselves had actually looked at r.e matchday experience and that they thought might be viable. He said they were leaning more towards a fan zone/Box Park style experience - and I would probably say that was the kind of experience the fans who attended were leaning towards as well. Obviously we can't replicate the larger ones such as Wembley but I see no reason why a smaller version cannot be successful.

For me this type of development is something that could really help in the healing process of a lot of the parties involved - such as the club, the Supporters' Trust and the Travel groups and any other interested parties like The New Hotel End. Everyone get together and let's come up with a fantastic project. I think the idea of the Infrastructure Foundation from the Trust is a good idea and I hope the club take them up on it and they can both begin to bury the hatchet.

I have to be honest in saying though that I still need to be convinced that there is a real hunger from the club to do something like this. I get that with the completely understandable absence of the chairman last night there were going to be no cast iron commitments. But when I asked James if there had been any discussions about how much the club would be willing to invest in improving the matchday experience alongside any fan-led investment, the answer did leave me feeling as though it hadn't really been discussed. Perhaps that is unfair, but that was what I was left thinking.

I don't think this can be a one-way street from the fans, something on this scale definitely needs club input and financial support. In the past I think both the club and supporters have thought of reasons NOT to do things. Until that attitude changes from us all and we start to look at what we CAN do, then nothing will improve. There are some good ideas coming from the support base, and I now need to see some action from the club to actually look at implementing some of these ideas or at least giving them a try. Otherwise I'm afraid it's just lip service.

But, as I started my post, full credit to the club, James Whiting, the media team and Tom Cliffe for sparing us their time last night. I hope they weren't left with the impression that it was a chance for us all to bash them. It was rightly pointed out that we do a lot well as a club and that shouldn't be forgotten. Everyone who went to that meeting loves the club and wants the best for it.

Just reminiscing when there was a Hotelend Message Board trip up north with a fantastic lunchtime stop at the famous Tan Hill pub at the top of the world - wonder how many current contributors were on that trip?

I was there as a fresh faced teenager. Good day that was

You must a be complete nutter James. Who in their right mind does that out of choice 😀

I think I got my love of being a glutton for punishment from being a Cobblers supporter!

James Averill still seems to think it will go through. Apparently 90 of the councillors are Conservative and most go with the party whip and he would be "staggered if many of their own councillors voted against their wishes."

See all of James' replies on James Heneghan's twitter feed.

Bloody hell, you beat me to myself. 😂

A lot of incredibly reactionary posts tonight.

So the cabinet are voting on Monday. They are the ones with the real power as the decision making branch of the governing party.

The recommendation from both the cabinet member and the officers is to pursue the deal with CDNL. Having covered a fair few council meetings in my time it was virtually unheard of for the cabinet not to go with the recommendation before them.

Of course that decision can still be called in by a Councillor, most likely on the basis that they will feel there has not been sufficient scrutiny or enough time allowed to consider the alternative offer from Cilldara.

But if the council feels it has a robust defence to that, then it will only delay the decision and they are likely to just approve it again later down the line.

The owners will be happy with the position they are currently in I daresay.

[Revan]

I might get bored of giving it to Etete, so I'll go for Revan today who I thought did an excellent job at right-back.

That was the most I've enjoyed a game at Sixfields in some time. Really entertaining encounter and a decent atmosphere, with a draw being a fair result. Well worth £15.

Etete is absolutely unplayable at times.

Has to go to Lewis of course - but Sowerby, Etete and Koiki ran him close. Lots of good performances today.

Given I think we potentially could have gone up another gear, I really enjoyed watching us today. There's some snippets of really good football - the first goal in particular was the best team goal we've scored in some time.

All four defenders are a joy to watch. Horsfall and Guthrie give virtually nothing away in terms of shots and win almost every header, struggling to think of a better centre-back pairing in many a year. Koiki is just pure entertainment and should be retaining his place even when Mills returns from injury, he gives us a completely different attacking option. McGowan is just solid and contributes going forward, best RB since Moloney.

As BackOfTheNet has already said, thought that was comfortably Sowerby's best performance for us. Ditto Lewis with an impressive hat-trick. And Etete absolutely ran their defenders ragged.

The 4-2-3-1 just suits all the players that are starting much better than 4-4-2 was, and I'm glad the management team adapted and changed their approach - it's certainly paying dividends.

Kion Etete for me.