New link

Just found out that one of my all time favourite Cobblers players has his own blog.

Any other fan of lower league football can see what Chris Hargreaves has to say about life, the universe, and the Blue Square Premier here.

Non football fans like Fire Byrd may care to check him out anyway for his very admirable six pack!

Sunderland v Northampton Town

I didn’t go to this match. I knew fully well we wouldn’t win. Lightening doesn’t strike twice and we had already beaten Premiership Bolton to then get Sunderland in the League Cup. Furthermore, our league form has been nothing short of woeful so why on earth would I want to travel 220 miles there and 220 miles back on a Tuesday night to see us get hammered by a premiership team?

My son went though. He had to leave town at 1.15pm to get there and he got home at 3.00am – that is dedication or madness. Maybe both.

And as I knew fully well would happen we did indeed get beaten. Only that wasn’t the full story.

Reidski came up to see me last night. I know it is appallingly rude to have a mobile phone switched on when you are with someone but he understood that I needed mine to hand last night just to keep up to date with just how many we were losing by.

20 minutes in and we were 1 nil up. This did not disturb me as we have frequently these past weeks gone one up and have still contrived to throw the lead away – and that against the likes of Tranmere and Huddersfield so what chance did we have against Sunderland? I was though told we were playing Sunderland off the pitch. All that meant though was that Roy Keane would give all his players a bollocking at half time and they would destroy us in the second half .

80 minutes in and another text arrived. I fully expected to read we were now behind but instead I learnt we had just gone 2 up. Still I maintained we would lose, but at that moment I did have secret delusions of another great cup upset. I know! Stupid or what?

5 minutes later and Sunderland have pulled one back. By now we are in the car with the radio on . There was three minutes of injury time to be played…..and we conceded again in the third of those flaming three minutes. Extra time beckoned.

In extra time we dominated but could not score and so the match was decided on penalties. One day I just know the side I want to win will win a match on penalties. If I live long enough that is. Yesterday was not that day. I was nearly in tears when with the tally standing at 4-3 after they had taken 5 penalties we had our last one saved. God knows why I was so upset as it isn’t often I have the chance to say “I was right!” I knew, as already mentioned more than once, that we would not win at Sunderland.

But everyone who was at that match – including Roy Keane and, going by what I have read, all the Sunderland fans too – said we were robbed.

There is something about a love for a football team. At my level you get let down by the team over and again. You think to yourself “Sod them. It’s over between us! I will NOT be getting another season ticket in 2000/2001/2002/ (insert any old year - the same will always have been said)” Then something like last night happens and the love affair is well and truly rekindled and you suddenly just know that a turning point has been reached and your side is now going to make that charge to the top of the table.




(Bet now on the dead certainty that Brighton and Hove Albion will win at Northampton this coming Saturday.)

Let me just say

that I am rather pleased.


My son rather less so. He had made what in my expressed opinion was the crazy decision to drive up to Bolton last night with a mate. He rang me early evening to say they had got as far as Coventry and had decided that they might not make Bolton in time for kick off so were going to see the Coventry Newcastle match instead. Not only was he devastated at missing our famous victory - he was none too happy when I texted him about Coventry's injury time equaliser - seeing as how the two of them had just left the match a minute before.

He said he has had more successful evenings.

Thank god for that eh?

Football chants

Never let it be said that I ignore the important issues in this world, and with that in mind I want tonight to talk to you about football chants.

As can be seen here Reidski, (who IS really annoying in his flat refusal to ever critise referees) thinks the worst football chant is "Your support is fucking shit" (usually aimed at home supporters), closely followed by "You don't know what you're doing" (usually aimed at the referee but can be aimed at a manager following an inexplicable substitution).

"Wanker, wanker" is an odd one. Always meant as a term of abuse aimed by a bunch of men at one isngle male, but which one amongst the chanters has never....never mind.

Now when we Cobblers are abroad (by 'abroad' I mean places as diverse as Swindon, Hartlepool and Oldham) we are a noisy lot. At home however it is often the case that "our support is fucking shit." Last Saturday the Gillingham fans (poor unfortunates that they were) sang at us "4-0 and you still don't sing." Although in fairness that was due to us all suffering from a collective case of deep shock.

My worst chant by many miles is the truly idiotic and asking for grief - "Easy, easy," especially when we are only 1-0 up.

I like ones where a player's name lends itself to a certain chant...our captain Chris Doig is greeted by "Who let the Doig out?" and our new cult hero Adebayo Akinfenwa (four goals in three games and he has yet to play a whole match) has already earnt "Bayo, Baaaaayoo."

But the best are the ones that reflect gallows humour and I will end this for now with the reaction of the Gillingham fans when their player Thurgood went in with a late tackle and caught our player... A few Cobblers fans started chanting "OFF, OFF, OFF", so they just joined in. As one commented later "Three games without him would be fantastic."

Think yourselves lucky

that I have to be out in a few minutes which restricts my ability to rant about the greedy fucking bastards at the Premier League who believe "This is an idea whose time has come".

This from a group of pampered teams who already complain about their players having to go on overseas on international duty during the season, and who are on record as saying they play too many games as it is.

That it will come to pass I have no doubt...to merry hell with the fans who have sustained these clubs throughout so many years....Hong Kong here we come. And as to the slight difficulty that it would be unfair for the likes of say Derby County to end up playing Man Utd 3 times in a season and therefore almost certainly facing an enhanced threat of relegation? Well that is easily solved isn't it? No more relegation from the premiership.


Anyway, who needs Premiership football? You can see from this picture the lengths some people will go to to watch Northampton Town these days.



Anyone would think we were playing a 'Big Team' yesterday - like Leeds United or some such side?

I pride myself on my footballing knowledge*.

My comments this season on our young midfield player Bradley Johnson have included:

"Get that useless pile of crap off the pitch."

"I do not understand why that headless chicken has STILL not been dropped!"

"Oh! I didn't realise Johnson was playing." (In the 88th minute as he receives a booking.)

"He thinks he is bloody Stevie Gerrard - well I just think he's a stupid tosser."

Leeds United, and various other sides who were chasing him didn't seem to agree with my assessments..



Good luck to the lad.

I always liked him.


And no, I am still not talking about Millwall's injury time equaliser which entirely ruined my New Year Day.

* Like knowing Dulwich Hamlet has no 'S' after Hamlet (Fatalist!!!)

Not Stuart Gray* then!

But this guy instead.

Last night Five Live Drive asked people to ring in with their suggestions as to what English phrases Capello needed to learn first. My personal favourite was "We can take a lot of positives from that defeat." ("Possiamo prendere i positives molto da quella sconfitta" being the Italian for this useful phrase.)

Any more offers?

* Spelling checked and double checked Martin!!!!

Euro 2008

I heard Owen Hargreaves say this week that he hoped England would get what they deserve in the qualification stages for the Euro 2008 competition. Well I bloody well hope we DON'T get what we deserve as I would actually still like to see us qualify.

When this lot was pulled out of the collective hat - Croatia, Russia, Israel, Macedonia, Estonia, Andorra and England - not many England supporters could have anticipated we would be reduced to supporting sodding Israel on 17th November in order for us to have an outside chance of qualifying. Hang on though - surely I dreamt that we failed to beat Macedonia at home last October?

I didn't????!!!!

Oh shit - we really are that bad.

On the same day as I was starting to put in place my travel plans for Austria I was sympathising with Reidksi over the fact that Scotland had managed to end up in the same group as Italy, France, Ukraine, Georgia and Lithuania, though I did fancy they could get a draw against the Faroe Islands. And now there sits Scotland, second in a table that contains both the World Cup Finalists, with 'only' Italy to beat to ensure qualification. Respect!

Meanwhile a group of Austrian football fans calling themselves 'For the Love of Football' have launched a petition to get their own side (who automatically qualify as joint hosts) to pull out of the Finals. They complain that when the Austrian team are on the field "displays of true skill... occur about as frequently as meteorite impacts." Or also according to the guy I heard on the radio - "As frequently as an articulate comment from David Beckham." I like these guys already.


It's a Funny Old Game as I do not believe anyone has ever mentioned before.

Nothing if not unpredicatable

After the debacle that was Tuesday night for at least an hour ofyesterday's match we could do no wrong and in spite of an injury crisis that we left Millwall with we deservedly won what was, once Port Vale decided to join in, a great game of football. (Port Vale's goal was a beauty - we clapped.)

Going back to our late arrival at Millwall, it transpired that the team were just 5 miles from the ground but had to have a police escort in what with Millwall fans being so unruly and all that. Anyway, traffic was terrible in the area as it was, but it sure wasn't helped by the police escort vehicle sustaining a bloody puncture! THAT was why the team arrived late!

And obviously I should be grateful that my team are unlikely ever to be troubled by European fixtures. I was quite shocked to see that yesterday - a SATURDAY - that there were only 2 Premier league games because so many of the pampered darlings couldn't cope with playing that day having exerted themselves in Europe during the week. Erh, don't they all have squads consisting of 50 or so players? Could they not possibly give someone else a game even if all the 11 that turn out in the week are feeling a little fatigued? What about the poor fans? The very poor fans if they are paying the ticket prices demanded by these clubs. Oh I was forgetting that they are the last people to be considered by the powers that be in football. Who cares if they have horrendous homeward journeys on a Sunday evening from where ever it is that their team is playing that day? Of course, even when they don't play European fixtures in the week they bugger about with match days and times due to the Evil Sky Sports.

Talking though of exorbitant prices for football ( Was I talking about that? Oh yes - got a passing mention in above complaint) we are playing at Luton a week on Monday. Now for those amongst you who have never had the pleasure of a trip to sit in the away end at Luton Town I have to assure you that this picture (with thanks to Duncan Adams - photographer) is genuine.





Yes, we really do go in through the middle of people's houses. As we go up the steps the other side we look down into people's back yards. We then - or certainly those of us with long legs do - sit bent double hugging our knees as there is no leg room at all - whilst trying to avoid the seats where the view is completely concealed by huge pillars. A pukka pie costs £3.00. Oh I don't believe what I just saw when looking for a link to pukka pies....I have to share this whilst checking which century we are living in........



That has completely thrown me! Where was I?

Oh yes, anyway - for such unaccustomed luxury we are expected to pay £23.50 a ticket. In the words of Ricky Gervais in Extras "You're 'aving a laugh." But hey - rejoice and praise the Wonderful Public Service that is Sky Sports. The match is being televised so I shall feel no need to go!


Did I just hear the words 'Two faced bitch' muttered somewhere in the distance?

And something that made me feel better

I was still so cross about the incident at Orient yesterday morning that I wrote to their stadium manager about it.

I got the following e-mail in response this morning...

Dear Jane,

Firstly many thanks for your letter regarding the incident on Saturday when you were confronted by stewards. I apologise sincerely for any distress this may have caused you and will indeed be having words with those concerned. Whilst there is a need for vigilance with regard to weapons being brought into the ground this is absolutely ludicrous and a case of over zealous stewarding and a severe lack of any common sense. The stewards are always instructed to perform random searches and to use common sense but obviously these two failed to listen clearly to any briefing they are also advised to be courteous and polite and to make away fans feel welcome so again words will be had.



I do hope this will not deter you from attending games here in the future and I hope you went on to enjoy the very entertaining game which was a fantastic advert for League One I am sure you will agree.



Please accept my apologies once again and good luck for the rest of the season.



Regards

Orient are here by forgiven.

By the way

What is that nasty taste in my mouth?

Oh! Tis the thought that West Ham will avoid relegation after getting away with playing unregistered players.

Here's another sour thought. How long exactly will Sam Alladyce be spending with his family?

And another - Leeds get away with having their 10 point reduction this season rather than next.



On a more positive note. Like him or loathe him, Alex Ferguson is a truly incredible manager. The way he has yet again built a championship winning side is amazing, and the way they have won it this time with such beautiful attacking football has been a pleasure to watch.

No rose coloured glasses here.

At least I don't think so.


But most importantly the mighty Cobblers finished a quite respectable 14th in League One.Play-offs next season??? (Stranger things have happened!)

A dilemma avoided

Thanks to this result tonight from Milan.

My middle son is a Liverpool fan. We had our most intense bonding session ever watching the
the 2005 Final. We sat holding hands for most of that amazing come back afraid to let go of each other in case that broke the spell and brought doom to Liverpool. Breast feeding had nothing on that!

I feared he would never speak to me again if I cheered for United against them in another Champions League Final. I would have tried not to but things have a habit of going wrong for me in such situations. ('Come on Luton' springs unwanted to my mind.)

So anyway, no worries now following that lack lustre performance from United.

COME ON LIVERPOOL!

Look where I will be going next season

But I am a little worried Elland Road won't fit in the hordes of Cobbler fans who simply can not wait to play Leeds United :-)

Now all I need for my football season to be complete is for there to be some justice for West Ham by which I mean relegation. All Quiet in the East Stand says everything I would want to say on this subject...see post headed Cheats not Hammered.

(And Man U for the Premiership, FA Cup and European Cup wouldn't go down too badly either - sorry Steve!)

P.S. On West Ham another excellent article for anyone as incensed as I am by the decision made regarding the 'irregularities' surrounding that club.

Never again

Will I defend that bloke who manages Chelsea whose name escapes me. I should have listened to my mother who told me never to trust those swarthy Mediterranean types. "Stick with a good Scottish man" she told me and so I shall - even if one particular Scottish man of my acquaintance rather bizarrely thinks everton are right!

OK - through gritted teeth...maybe Andy Johnson is a reformed character. In my line of work we need to believe individuals can change for the better (difficult though that can be).

(but I doubt it)

Still on football - we have lost the nice Mr Gorman as our manager - he has resigned. Some supporters are saying a certain ex-manager of ours should be re-appointed. They are on about Ian Atkins - Mr Nasty Bully as opposed to Mr Gorman who =Mr Nice Guy, or indeed that nice honest Mr Johnson ( I am trying here - really I am). If Atkins came back I here by swear I would not return to watch my team until such time as he was sacked again.

There is so much I would like to add to this but the truth is - my lap top is knackered again, I am at my sister's - and her mouse isn't working well and it is doing my head in, so I will be back when I can find a computer that will actually operate properly for me.

Wonders - is it me that computers just react against?

In defence of Jose Mourinho.

Not something I find myself saying every day but at the risk of getting sued for defamation of character, Andy Johnson IS a diver.

I bring you in full this quote as it is simply hilarious -

"To publicly question the integrity of a player of Andrew's professionalism and honesty is not only wholly unacceptable and quite possibly defamatory but also, in our opinion, highly damaging for both club and player."

Andrew's HONESTY????? I am sorry???? They can't possibly be referring to the Andy Johnson who plays for England, Everton and previously Crystal Palace because that Andy Johnson is a cheating scum bag.

In my opinion -

These lot are nothing in the diving stakes compared to Andy Johnson.


Andy Johnson is a low life who brings the game of football into disrepute.






No, I don't like him, and yes - his diving twice and being granted two penalties (both converted) when we played Crystal Palace in January this year has got EVERYTHING to do with my feelings.

Cup Football Success

It was SO exciting. 'We' were totally outplayed but 'we' scored the only goal of the match and 'we' saved a penalty. Yes, Celtic's newest supporter was very happy last night. Nakamura scores from free kicks like that every time I watch Celtic. He is amazing. Reidski ended up though singing (loudly!!!) in praise of Louis Saha after his three very welcome contributions to the match. The Man Utd fans in the pub seemed to take it quite well in that Reidski is still alive this morning. Saha's contributions were as follows - 1) Stopping when through on goal as he wrongly thought he was off-side. 2) Having his 89th minute penalty saved. 3) Not scoring at any other stage of the match either.




And to round off a perfect evening the Mighty Cobblers beat Grimsby in our FA Cup replay match and progress all the way to the second round of the FA Cup. Bring on the Barnet! (That's what passes for a glamour tie at this stage of the cup....Not as Borat's humour coach would no doubt say.)

It's Premiership football, but not as we know it

Piece of footballing comment heard today by Reidski and I:

"If Wigan win here today they will go above Liverpool and Reading in the table."

That is SO weird in respect of all three named teams.