Good Morning!

Come on Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve got a big game on Saturday!

Are the Cobblers going to burst our bubble?

What are your predictions, will we actually concede a goal?

I hope I’m wrong but this game is just the occasion where we don’t do ourselves justice, for once we are probably expected to beat Northampton, even a lot of the Cobblers fans are all doom and gloom at the moment, unhappy with the manager and his tactics.

Football cliche but the first goal will be crucial, if they get it, confidence will rise and we are in for a struggle. However we know how well we can play , attacking on both wings with Willmott and Haynes.
Abraham’s running at them, Matt back and Podges work rate and football brain.
Defence has been outstanding...
Now look, I’ve talked myself into a positive frame of mind about this game, I am not comfortable with that!

I think we’ll keep the run going and squeeze through with a tight 4-0 victory!

Everyone is happy, us with three points and Cobblers fans as it’s a step nearer to getting rid of an unpopular manager!

See you all on Saturday!

Phil in Northampton

Willmott on the wing? Only in cup games

Blackandamber wrote:Willmott on the wing? Only in cup games

Shhhh..... opposition managers read this forum!

Phil in Npton

Well, it's going to happen sometime but hopefully not on Saturday ........ a team is again going to score against us. It has been a remarkable run and if we get through the first twenty minutes unscathed at Northampton it will be 600 minutes. Yes, TEN HOURS. I for one will be watching the clock and will applaud on 20 minutes. It's a quite remarkable run and I can't recall such a sequence of clean sheets in the league.

excessbee wrote:Well, it's going to happen sometime but hopefully not on Saturday ........ a team is again going to score against us. It has been a remarkable run and if we get through the first twenty minutes unscathed at Northampton it will be 600 minutes. Yes, TEN HOURS. I for one will be watching the clock and will applaud on 20 minutes. It's a quite remarkable run and I can't recall such a sequence of clean sheets in the league.

Remarkable doesn't do it justice. It is a quite incredible sequence, in 53 years supporting County only 10 wins on the bounce in 1980 comes close.And probably not that close either.

Stan A. Einstein wrote:

excessbee wrote:Well, it's going to happen sometime but hopefully not on Saturday ........ a team is again going to score against us. It has been a remarkable run and if we get through the first twenty minutes unscathed at Northampton it will be 600 minutes. Yes, TEN HOURS. I for one will be watching the clock and will applaud on 20 minutes. It's a quite remarkable run and I can't recall such a sequence of clean sheets in the league.

Remarkable doesn't do it justice. It is a quite incredible sequence, in 53 years supporting County only 10 wins on the bounce in 1980 comes close.And probably not that close either.

Pretty sure we won about 14 on the bounce in 1994 - 95, although admittedly the competition was not at stiff as it is in this division, and we did have a ridiculous team for the level we were at (Lowndes, Vaughan, Jones, Williams, etc).

The clubs meet for the ninth time since County's return to the FL in 2013.Of the eight played thus far, Cobblers have won five, County two and one draw.
County have yet to win at Sixfields Stadium (recently named PTS Stadium, Personal Track Safety Stadium) and have lost their latest seven meetings with Northampton away. The most recent victory County achieved in Northampton was 4-2 in 1977, losing all seven games played their since, failing to score in their latest three visits.County's most recent league defeat was 1-0 at Northampton in March.County start Saturdays game undefeated in the latest seventeen league matches, conceding only FIVE goals in those seventeen games. They were one at Yeovil, one v Bury, one at Morecambe and two v Mansfield. If we include the two play-off semi's against Mansfield and the final (excluding extra time, 90mins play only) against Tranmere, County are undefeated in their latest twenty matches relating to League Two matches with only six goals conceded. My gut feeling is that the long unbeaten run will end at Northampton this coming Saturday.

Meetings between the two clubs since County were promoted to the FL in 2013:
2013/2014:
Northampton Town 3-1 Newport County:
This was County's second league match of the season in what was their first season as a F L club in twenty five years.
Cobblers led 2-0 HT, their goalie Matt Duke made several good saves before Conor Washington scored a late consolation.

Newport County 1-2 Northampton Town:
Against the odds, bottom placed Cobblers beat eighth placed County and the Cobblers remained bottom after this win.
Town took the lead on the half hour, Harry Worley equalized in stoppage time before Town were back in front just after the break.
Goalie Duke denied County again as in the earlier encounter between the two. He saved a late penalty from Andy Sandell.

2014/2015:
Newport County 3-2 Northampton Town:
County had a comfortable 2-0 lead at the break with goals from Zebroski and Jones and extended that to 3-0 early in the second half by Lee Minshull. It proved a tense finish to the match for County as the Cobblers scored twice in the final quarter. This was Joe Day's third game on loan.

Northampton Town 3-0 Newport County:
Following their 4-0 loss at Cambridge, this was a second successive heavy defeat for County at the time when Justin Edinburgh's future as County manager was uncertain.
This victory took Town up to mid table whilst County dropped to sixth.

2015/2016:
Newport County 2-2 Northampton Town:
Third placed Northampton were two up come the half hour against 22nd placed County.
Goals from Scott Barrow and LJL made it 2-2 at the break and it finished the same.
This was manager John Sheridan's sixth game in charge and the third at Rodney Parade. The three games at Rodney Parade had accumulated only two points for County.

Northampton Town 1-0 Newport County:
Runaway leaders Northampton, and the eventual champions, scraped this victory.
County gave them a run for their money and were unfortunate not to gain any points from this game.

2018/19:
Newport County 3-1 Northampton Town:
All the goals came in the first half.
County rose to fourth while Cobblers dropped to seventeenth.
Since this game, County have gained only fourteen points from forty five, fifteen games.
Since losing 4-0 home to Colchester early February, Northampton are unbeaten in six league games, winning four with two draws and conceding only four goals. They've won their latest three.

Northampton 1-0 Newport County:The games only goal was scored very late on by Joe Powell.County dropped to thirteenth while Northampton rose to eleventh.With nine games remaining, Cobblers missed out on possible promotion gaining only another ten points while County gained twenty two points from their remaining ten games, eventually making the play-offs and the Wembley final.

Managers:
Northampton - Keith Curle.
County - Mike Flynn.

Head to head:
Flynn 1
Curle 2
Draws 2

2016/17 - Carlisle 2-1 County
2017/18 - County 3-3 Carlisle
///////////// - Carlisle 1-1 County
2018/19 - County 3-1 Northampton
///////////// - Northampton 1-0 Carlisle

A few of the several players who've played for both County and Northampton are:
Ryan Gilligan
Glyn Thompson
Sam Foley
Danny Crow
Ben Tozer
Regan Poole
Danny Rose

Ultra-pedantry, but wasn't the penalty saved in 2014 from Andy Sandell?

George Street-Bridge wrote:Ultra-pedantry, but wasn't the penalty saved in 2014 from Andy Sandell?

It sure was

ref23 wrote:

Stan A. Einstein wrote:

excessbee wrote:Well, it's going to happen sometime but hopefully not on Saturday ........ a team is again going to score against us. It has been a remarkable run and if we get through the first twenty minutes unscathed at Northampton it will be 600 minutes. Yes, TEN HOURS. I for one will be watching the clock and will applaud on 20 minutes. It's a quite remarkable run and I can't recall such a sequence of clean sheets in the league.

Remarkable doesn't do it justice. It is a quite incredible sequence, in 53 years supporting County only 10 wins on the bounce in 1980 comes close.And probably not that close either.

Pretty sure we won about 14 on the bounce in 1994 - 95, although admittedly the competition was not at stiff as it is in this division, and we did have a ridiculous team for the level we were at (Lowndes, Vaughan, Jones, Williams, etc).

Fair point though. And the season we won Division 6 by March was remarkable. But for me in Tier 4 not to concede for 10 hours of football is a far greater achievement.

For a side in non league Newport is so big that in reality these lower league achievements are for me at least, somewhat hollow.

From what I can find, Reading hold the football league record at 1,103 minutes.

Good Evening!

Excellent information as always Reebok!

Regarding your list of players for both teams, I can add another, and as a piece of trivia, as well as playing for County and Cobblers, he also played against me ( I was a goalkeeper) on Northampton racecourse in a local Sunday morning league match.

So we are talking a good while ago!

Phil in Northampton

Stan A. Einstein wrote: Fair point though. And the season we won Division 6 by March was remarkable. But for me in Tier 4 not to concede for 10 hours of football is a far greater achievement.

For a side in non league Newport is so big that in reality these lower league achievements are for me at least, somewhat hollow.

Yep, agree with you there. Although as a 10 year old at the time it was hard to think it would ever get any better!

Does anyone going to the game fancy sending in a quick post-game clip into the podcast giving thoughts on how it went?

phil_in_npton wrote:Good Evening!

Excellent information as always Reebok!

Regarding your list of players for both teams, I can add another, and as a piece of trivia, as well as playing for County and Cobblers, he also played against me ( I was a goalkeeper) on Northampton racecourse in a local Sunday morning league match.

So we are talking a good while ago!

Phil in Northampton

Was it the fella who scored 5 for us at Bradford PA in 68.