Pleasure & Pain – The Battle of Northampton Town

Rare that you can ever say this about a team fighting for promotion, but it’s tough times for Northampton Town. They’re currently 4th in League Two, with only goal difference preventing them from sitting in 3rd – and thus, an automatic promotion spot, currently held by Oxford United. Having won 6 of their last 10 games with 2 draws, it’s a great run for a team that in recent years has been middle of the road, fighting relegation and fighting for promotion.

So how on earth can there be an issue? Sadly, it’s financial.

Northampton Borough Council had loaned the club £10 million in order to be able to build a new East Stand at Sixfields, but near the end of September the Council wanted repayment of the loan in full with short notice.

While a buyer for the club had initially been found, the consortium had to pull out, leaving the Cobblers in a difficult situation. Earlier this month, HM Revenue & Customs handed Northampton Town a winding-up petition, as a result of money outstanding due to the delays of the consortium not taking over.

Former Oxford United Chairman Kelvin Thomas is now looking to take over, and current chairman David Cardoza is willing to sell – as long as Thomas can do a deal regarding the outstanding loan to the Council. A positive if this goes ahead – Northampton manager Chris Wilder has a previous working relationship with Thomas, being in the role of manager at Oxford United in the past.

The fans also realise the situation – Northampton Town are using a pink away kit this season to raise money for Coppafeel – a breast cancer charity promised a portion of the sales from purchases of the kit, of which the first payment was due this week. In order to make sure money still gets to the charity, the fans have set up a fundraising page to make sure they still receive the money they should get.

Yet, despite all of this, Northampton Town has been winning on the pitch – the performance on the field, so far, still doesn’t seem to have been affected by all this chaos as the team fights to make sure it doesn’t go in to administration – a resulting effect would be losing 10 points, which would be disastrous in such an open fight as what League Two currently is. Despite the Cobblers currently being 4th, were they to be docked those points as the table stands to this date, they would drop 14 places down to 18th – just 5 places and 8 points above the relegation battle. Certainly, not the place to be for a team that’s been performing the way Northampton has so far this season.

Ashley Redman
Monopoly failure, so avoiding taking part in business