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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Derby County (h) 23.3.24
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on: March 23, 2024, 14:01:31 pm
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I was at the game at the County Ground on the 10th April 1965 when the two teams fought out a 2-2 draw. The Cobblers scored first through Don Martin in the 58th min and then Alan Durban equalised in the 75th minute. The Cobblers then re-took the lead in the 76th only for Durban to equalise again in the 80th. The crowd that day was 17,917.
The game at the Baseball Ground on the 28th November 1964 also finished 2-2 with Durban scoring first in the 11th minute and Don Martin equalising in the 33rd, Ian Buxton then made it 2-1 to Derby in the 51st with Bobby Brown saving a point in the 85th. The crowd was similar to the one at the CG with 17,367. The fans stood together on the terraces in those days. At the end of the season the Cobblers finished second behind Newcastle and won promotion to Div 1 and Derby finished 9th.
I'd happily take a 2-2 tomorrow.
Footage of this game on YouTube from, I think, match of the day. The state of the pitch is terrible and the quality of football is poor to say the least, considering we were on our way to promotion to the top division.
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5
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 16, 2024, 22:29:18 pm
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Agreed - fool and their money are soon parted. Considering Lincoln are not in the plays off yet with 7/8 games to go so anything can happen.
Certainly doing better than us and encouraging more people to go and watch them. Although we aren't able to encourage many more to fit in our ground.
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6
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 16, 2024, 20:20:52 pm
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The sad thing is that Lincoln didn't really do a lot in January either..... I mean its not like they splashed out thousands on transfer fees. They picked up a player upon completion of the League of Ireland season and therefore completion of his contract in Moylan, they picked up Joseph Taylor on loan from Luton after he had been recalled from his loan for the first half of the season at League 2 Colchester, and they got Conor McGrandles on loan from Charlton. They also recalled Freddie Draper from Walsall where he had been on loan and stuck him back in their team.
Since New Years Day and since making the squad changes above they are unbeaten in 13, have won 8 of the last 10, have scored 16 goals in three games, and attracted over 9300 to their home game against Bristol Rovers today.
I dream of even having the ability to get that many in our ground.
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7
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 16, 2024, 19:46:17 pm
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No but Lincoln are far more established in League 1 and have had the chance to build a squad with far more quality than ours. Up to January 1st we were massively overachieving while they were underperforming so there was far more scope for them to improve than us. Unfortunately we lost a keeper and replaced him with a massively inferior player. We have had a lot of injuries. Marriott a potential signing but out of our price range has done nothing at league 2 Wrexham. Carlisle have spent big and done nothing so it’s no guarantee you will improve.
They've only been in league 1 for 4 years and only been back in the league for 6 years having spent a similar length of time in the non league wilderness. So you could say that we're far more established in the football league than them and have had the chance to build a squad with far more quality than theirs. We're similar sized clubs and I can't imagine they have a massive budget or splashed out stupidly to bolster their squad in the window. But they certainly managed to snap up some very good players and at least greatly improved the match day experience, scoring lots more goals , enticing more fans to the ground and giving themselves a decent chance of the play offs. Whereas we're going the other way. I'm with Marvo on this.
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8
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 14, 2024, 21:35:15 pm
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Fair enough Shoey. Not a term I’d personally use. I might say I’d love to win the lottery but I wouldn’t say it’s an ambition. I might have an ambition to run 5km under 25 minutes. JB could have an ambition to get a team into the Championship…etc. It’s good to have ambitions though and I’m sure you can help by cheering us on. It's not my ambition in life, just for the team I support. JB may have an ambition to get a team to the Championship (Cobblers?) just as I have an ambition to see them there. I'd also love to win the lottery, it may help to make the dream a reality. No need to be patronising either.
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9
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 14, 2024, 19:43:47 pm
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I'm not sure a supporter can have ambition,the owners maybe but supporters can put money in and hope for the best.
It isn't a stretch to hope that we might reach the heady heights of the Championship again one day but it won't be with the current owners, or potentially the ones after that. We can but hope. We've been there a couple of times in the past 60 years, you'd hope that the odds of probability mean that we'll do it again one day. There are smaller teams than us who have had a sniff.
If you are a 'Northampton' going up on the first, second or third season, how do you not become a 'Rotherham'? It'd be nice to find out if we had the chance.
Of course we can. I'm a supporter and my ambition is to see us in the Championship before I die.
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11
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 14, 2024, 12:26:56 pm
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KT got it exactly right as there was no point in spending our modest budget in the faint hope of reaching the play offs. Had we got there what chance would we have had overcoming 2 of Portsmouth, Derby, Peterborough, Bolton or Barnsley to get promoted?. Our results against these teams show we are a long way off beating 2 of them even with the addition of a couple more signings in January. Better option was to keep the cash for the summer transfer window when we have to replace Leonard and Bowie.
That remains to be seen. Not holding my breath. Hope you're right though.
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12
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Blackpool (h)
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on: March 13, 2024, 07:31:03 am
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Our season was always going to be judged by the results against the lower teams not the top 6. We have teams like Carlisle, Fleetwood and Cheltenham to play so keep the faith.
We might be down to just 7 out injured by then!!!
Port Vale.
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17
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Players Under & Out of Contract
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on: March 06, 2024, 16:41:46 pm
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When you go back a few years 80/90s even top players were not on mega bucks so would still have a strong motivation to keep playing that bit longer and hopefully put in the effort. Then run a pub or open a sports shop.
Pretty sure I saw Frank Worthington play against us.
Tranmere at County Ground. We were 4-1 down with about 10 minutes to go and got back to 4-3. I think Worthington scored 2. Night game. That's the one I remember.
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18
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: The Nene Derby part 2 05.03.24
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on: March 06, 2024, 09:41:51 am
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I can't believe the over reactions on here
We got hammered by a decent team, with a bigger budget than us. They had a player on pitch worth 5million quid?
I can't excuse the full backs performance but these things happen.
It's our first season back in the league. We are all but safe and yes took a few beatings by bigger and better clubs.
Happens in every league all round the world.
?? Don't think there's been any over reactions on here, just a few realistic observations.
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19
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: The Nene Derby part 2 05.03.24
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on: March 06, 2024, 06:05:08 am
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They were a different class and we had no answer. McWilliams, Sowerby and even Leonard were poor. For once Guthrie and Sherring were made to look very ordinary. Brady fielded his best midfield and they let themselves and Brady down The fans were magnificent. I see the usual suspects are lining up to criticise the team and Brady! Not so long ago you were full of praise for team and Manager. Peterborough have been our bogey team for 65 years only Bowen silenced them with a similar win back in the mid 60’s!
Er, unlike some.
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20
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: The Nene Derby part 2 05.03.24
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on: March 05, 2024, 22:52:07 pm
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Some might say, just a bad day at the office, but... that was an absolute total embarrassment. I know the ref was s*** and their third goal was offside, but they were a million miles ahead of us in every department. Could have easily been 8 or 9. I think that's the play offs out the window.
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