My thoughts are very much in line with yours on this Drilling, it may be wishful thinking on my part, but, why on earth would someone be throwing money at the squad as we appear to have done this window if that wasn't the case!

I have to agree with you Bungle, I don't think we are a million miles away, get the right players in during the window in January and it should see us turning a corner and moving up the table. A couple of strikers, and a couple of wingers. Get QPR to release Ingram for us to sign and cover for Moloney and I think we have the squad and team to do ok at this level. We also hve a few players just coming back from injury and playing not fully fit and it has been pretty much like that since JFH took over.

I know Wrexham were desperate to keep Coddington when he was there earlier in the season, could see him moving that way in January.

Agree with most of that appraisal, I think Mcwilliams looked good when he replaced Moloney for a couple of games and might well be a better starter there.

True he does but, it was more as an illustration of how the team spirit needs to be better

I think we have about 3/4 of a decent side ability wise, what we need is a couple of strikers a winger and another John Joe who fights for everything. I think the biggest problem with our side is that when John Joe isn't on the pitch there appears to be very little heart for a battle. When he is on the pitch everyone seems to raise their game. If we had one or two more with that attitude we would soon move up the table. I was speaking to a mate of mine who is a Wrexham fan earlier and he said it is the worst team on paper they have had for a long time yet they are top of th league, all down to team spirit, it is the one thing we appear to be missing more than anything else. If you look back at the Atkins era, his teams weren't the best in terms of quality but they had tremendous team spirit and fought for everything, if one got nailed 5 others went after the player that did him, thats the sort of spirit we need here and maybe we need to be more vocal and encouraging to get the players fired up.

It would be good if he can come out and say what is proposed for the East Stand even if there are legal issues over the lease I don't see why he cant say if we get the lease this is what we will  build and show us the proposal, and if we don't get what we want with the lease this is what we will build and show us that proposal. I can't see how that is not possible.

My favoured line up for this would be

 Ingram

       McWilliams Ash Pierre Buchs

                 Crooks JJ

          Powell McGugan Grimes

                      Long

I wasn't there that night but that was the game that started me watching the Cobblers. Before that just used to ground hop and go wherever mates were going but saw the crowd that night in the local press next day and thought would go along next home game. Did a couple then got hooked when Graham Carr put the championship winning side together and haven't been able to tear myself away since.

Your not wrong in your statement Melbourne, at this point in time we are a long way off a top 44 team and I have watched us when we were rock bottom and looked like going out of the league altogether. I just think that we should be pushing our owners to aim for that level. But I think KT has reached a point in his tenure when he should be giving us a lot more detail on his plans for the club and the stadium.
I think our next step should be aiming to be an established league 1 team flirting with the championship to start with, but we should be looking at having plans in place to become a Championship club and with all the infrastructure that entails.

There is no reason whatsoever that in the long term Northampton is a Rugby town. If Cobblers were playing more attractive football higher up the pyramid then we too would attract much bigger crowds. Beds is right in the sense that it is time for KT and co to come clean with their plans for our club. If they need this land to progress then give us detailed plans of why they need it and what they will build for NTFC on the land. If they need the land for their own ends then they are not the right people to be custodians of our club. I didn't agree with a lot of Beds comments earlier on in KT's reign but we have now gone past the stage where doing nothing is acceptable.
This town should have a football club playing regularly at Championship level, we are big enough a town to sustain this level of football and we should have a crowd big enough to support it. The honeymoon period is over lets see some plans for moving this club forward.

Just seen Lobjoit has now gone out on loan to Nuneaton for a month and Iaciofano has extended his loan at Chesham for another month

Beds Wrexham went out of the league in 2008 and are really struggling to get back in. They have an extremely loyal fan base and are in fact fan owned (which is why they are struggling to get back). I have a mate up there who is a season ticket holder and trust me they would swap places with us in an instant and have a smaller ground if it got them back.
Unfortunately we are where we are, I believe that KT is doing his best to get the situation sorted out, it is not as quick as any of us would like but I think he is trying to get it sorted. I agree we none of us know his reasoning behind it all and why he wanted to buy the club, but if he leaves us in a better position than we were when he came in then I for one will be pleased.
On a more optimistic note, I have my euromillions ticket for tonight and if it comes up I will be more than happy to invest a good portion of it into building us a fantastic new stadium.

But it was a very nice stadium last night and would love to see the Cobblers with a stadium of similar size. As long as we dont have that drum that they kept banging last night it was worse than the pompey bell. I do think that is the size we should be looking for, but need to do it a stand at a time and we need the issues that are holding the East stand up out in the open and then resolved so we can all see whats happening, not just everyone guessing and arguing the same points over and over again.

He was with Wrexham for a while on loan last season as well so knows there set up. I was talking to a Wrexham fan this morning and it looks like they have taken him on loan with a view to a permanent deal.

I thought overall we did alright last night, I thought 2nd half was a lot better than we have played 2nd half all season, we weren't dropping deep and we were trying to compete. If you look at here side (championship last year) they have been playing together a while, whilst we are still learning what works best.
I thought the 2 weak links in our team last night were Powell (who did play better than he has) and Rico. Rico I think is reaching the end of a good career and should only be a bit part player from now on.
I though Hanley did well and would love to see the 2 young strikers either get a chance or be loaned out to get gametime. we are a work in progress but overall looking better each game, I believe we now have the right man in charge and we will move up the table as we get fitter and stronger and more drilled.

Beds, I wasn't trying to put words in his mouth and maybe he won't look at developing the ground if we did make the championship, but I think he needs to be given a run of time to produce the development. We gave the last muppet way to long before questions were asked, that doesn't mean we have to be questioning everything about KT when he has only been in charge 5 minutes. we none of us know to what extent the legalities are with the East stand, we are only guessing. What I am trying to say is in my opinion the future development goes hand in hand with the advancement of the team on the pitch, get on the pitch right first then lets push for the development.

And how long does it take to recoup the money from the larger stand and what about the additional maintenance costs etc involved in a larger capacity stand. We all would like a bigger better stadium beds, but sometimes it is a case of gettng the timing right. I would think if we are doing well and look like pushing on to the championship then KT will look to develop the ends, but at the minute the money is better invested in the team in my opinion. You can make some good points about redevelopment but this continual banging on about the same think with you just throwing figures at it that have no foundation it just alienates people from your cause.

Personally I think Cornell has the makings of a great keeper and will have a great career. Whether that is with us or somewhere else remains to be seen. If we bring a top quality keeper in I can se him playing in the cup games and waiting on his chance this season.

I think some of these clauses do exist, I was chatting to my cousin at the weekend, he is the supporters trust member on the board of Grimsby Town. He was telling me that for Premier League club loans there is usually a clause that they will pay the players wages only if he plays. If he doesnt play one week you pay the wage, whereas if he does play they pay. What he was saying was that it usually based on percentages that is paid by parent club and loan club, so Premier league club will pay like 60% of his wage each week and if he doesn't play that may go down to 10% or something like that depending on the agreement you can get.