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| Bravo Northampton ...! | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: 28 Mar 2016, 12:55 PM (511 Views) | |
| daib0 | 28 Mar 2016, 12:55 PM Post #1 |
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Inter-Forum Gamemaster!
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Mail Online Northampton were six days from oblivion... now Chris Wilder's side are dead certs for promotion to League One Chris Wilder made a plea for action after beating Notts County in November Four months on, Northampton are skipping joyfully towards League One The Cobblers were saved within 48 hours of Wilder’s plea for action Kelvin Thomas bought club from David Cardoza, and paid a six-figure tax bill New owner seems embarrassed by hero-status but impact is incredible Chris Wilder stood by the pitch at Meadow Lane and trembled with rage. His team had beaten Notts County to suggest they may be genuine prospects for promotion but the manager had little time for the football. He paced around impatiently, waiting for the media to clamber down from the press box and prepare their recording devices. Northampton Town were six days from the edge. Time was everything. Wilder, a straight-talker from Sheffield, had kept crisis talk at bay to protect his players, but his patience snapped and his emotions poured into the microphone of BBC Northampton reporter Joe Townsend. ‘Absolute shambles… Tearing us apart… People’s livelihoods… Not being paid… Can’t stand that empty stand… Don’t understand what’s going on… I’m exhausted…’ Four months on and the mood has changed. Northampton are skipping joyfully towards League One, on 85 points with eight to play, clear at the top and on the way to becoming the first English club to be promoted this season, after beating Newport County 1-0. The Cobblers were saved within 48 hours of Wilder’s plea for action. Kelvin Thomas bought the club from David Cardoza, and paid a six-figure tax bill to avert a winding-up order and the immediate threat of liquidation. The police swept into Sixfields Stadium and seized computers as they launched a criminal investigation into the missing £10.25million loaned to the club by Northampton Borough Council. Thomas organised lunch at the ground and players stood to applaud staff who had worked unpaid for nine weeks to keep the club in business despite being engulfed by chaos. ‘It was a nice moment, to take half-an-hour and to sit and eat and thank each other,’ said James Whiting, the club’s chief executive. ‘There was a sense of relief in the room. We were moving forward.’ Thomas gave a short speech. As the new owner, he declared a fresh start but urged everyone to cherish the collective spirit fostered in adversity, and not let it go. Wilder’s team went on to win 10 League Two games on the bounce and ease clear at the top. ‘For a club looking into oblivion it has accelerated tremendously,’ said Thomas. ‘It would have been easy to take the foot off the pedal but they didn’t. They went steaming away, on and off the pitch. They’ve gone to another level. Hopefully we will soon get across the line and look forward to League One. It is an exciting time. The population of Northampton is growing. There’s a lot going on in the town. I don’t think there’s a ceiling. If we do things right, and with the right investment, we can keep climbing the leagues. It’s about keeping the momentum and taking on the challenges.’ Northampton Town have long been specialists in light and shade. Fifty years ago, they were basking in their ‘Season in the Sun’, the club’s one and only year in the top flight. It was the peak of an astonishing decade in which they started and ended the Sixties in the fourth tier. They went up, up, up in 1961, 63 and 65, and Joe Mercer claimed the footballing miracle of the era was not England’s World Cup win but the rise of Northampton. Then they went down, down, down in 1966, 67 and 69. In 1972, they had to seek re-election to the Football League. More recent years have been testing times of struggle for the Shoe Army, with supporters accustomed to taking an active role in their club’s welfare. Northampton were the first to form a Supporters’ Trust, in January 1992, during another financial crisis and fans were active in the latest fiasco, raising a hardship fund of £37,000 in October, when the club’s bank accounts were frozen. They handed £10,000 in cash to the club to pay staff and bills to keep the business afloat and launched a protest campaign. Other supporters’ groups rallied around, too. Sixfields Travel Club took the staff out for lunch to keep spirits up during the autumn crisis. It truly is a triumph of collective spirit — a story with unlikely heroes and arch-villains, criminal intrigue and what looks like being a happy ending. The financial problems all stem from the £10.25m loan secured in 2013 from Northampton Borough Council to redevelop Sixfields, and in particular the East Stand. Renovation work started but quickly stopped and inertia set in as suspicion swirled around owner Cardoza and 1st Land Ltd, the company owned by London property developer Howard Grossman which was contracted to carry out the work and went into administration last year. Millions are still missing and are subject to a police investigation, and the club is free from the debt. Councillor Mary Markham, leader of Northampton Borough Council, said: ‘Throughout the difficult situation that has faced Northampton Town FC and Northampton Borough Council over the last few months, we have been clear that keeping the club alive was very important to the identity of the town and to the local economy. Now that the future of the club appears more secure than ever, our attention is fully focused on supporting the investigations and reviews being carried out into the £10.25m loan we made to the club’s previous owners, and working to retrieve that money for the taxpayers of Northampton.’ Cardoza became silent and increasingly absent during his final days in charge of Northampton. He claimed to have been trying to sell for months but the fans found it difficult to decipher the messages amid a culture of lies and broken promises. Supposed interest from a mysterious Indian consortium came and went and supporters and local businessmen had reached the point where they were scrambling a rescue package together in November, in the hope it could help the club limp on to the end of the season. Promotion would have been written off. Costs would have cut and a firesale launched to raise money by selling players such as Marc Richards, Ricky Holmes, David Buchanan and Adam Smith. Thomas tabled his deal but as the High Court date loomed, Cardoza delayed the deal, claiming Jed McCrory, a former owner of Swindon Town, was also interested. It was the final straw for Wilder, who knew Thomas from having worked with him at Oxford. Thomas became Oxford chairman in 2008, when they were struggling in the Conference, and led them back into the Football League, before leaving in 2012 and founding a Florida-based radio station with former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal. The new owner seems embarrassed by his hero-status but the impact has been incredible. Work has restarted on the East Stand — the looming symbol of decay for the final months of the Cardoza era — and Northampton hope to have fans in there for the next home game, against Notts County. ‘It will be a fantastic sight because it marks the end of that era,’ said James Averill of the Supporters’ Trust. ‘The club was nearly killed for the sake of a stand which had a few extra rows of seats and some conference facilities round the back. This is a big town with the potential to be a Championship club and what was supposed to be the gateway and instead it nearly killed our club. We all feel robbed of the chance to build the stadium we wanted but, in a funny way, this might be the making of us. We’ve gone from thinking we might not have a club to being on the brink of something truly special. Rollercoaster season is an over-used term but there’s no other way to describe this campaign. It’s been utterly bonkers.’ Original, with a few photos: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3509975/Northampton-six-days-oblivion-Chris-Wilder-s-dead-certs-promotion-League-One.html#ixzz44CYToe51 and that was a nice story for my post mumber 30, 000 !! |
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| SuffolkRoyal | 28 Mar 2016, 01:11 PM Post #2 |
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Not sure if you mentioned it in that post (you know I struggle to wade through reams of writing) but Northampton are the only league club who can beat our 106 points total this season. If they were to win all their remaining 8 games, they could amass 109 points. A big ask at this end of the season, but possible. |
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| SuffolkRoyal | 28 Mar 2016, 03:28 PM Post #3 |
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As things stand, with about 20 minutes to play, Northampton are losing 2-0 at Mansfield. So after today, with 7 games left, they could only equal 106, provided they won the lot. |
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| RoyalJoe | 28 Mar 2016, 03:46 PM Post #4 |
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Think you spoke too soon. 2-2 now and looks likely to be 3-2 as Mansfield are down to 10
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| "Last One Standing" - http://royalsrendezvous.co.uk/topic/10349040/10/?x=0#post8870777 | |
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| SuffolkRoyal | 28 Mar 2016, 04:00 PM Post #5 |
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I know Joe, me and my big mouth
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| Madejski | 28 Mar 2016, 04:09 PM Post #6 |
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Finished 2-2 so only 107 maximum now. Should be safe for another season. 7 wins from 7 (after promotion celebrations is a tough ask). Haven't seen their fixtures though. Can get promoted/win the league on Saturday if results go in their favour. Nice for former academy player Lawson D'ath too. Has been playing fairly regularly for them since we released him in 2014. |
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| SuffolkRoyal | 28 Mar 2016, 04:09 PM Post #7 |
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FT 2-2. Thats 2 more points dropped then. They can still beat the record, but will have to win all their games to do it. |
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| daib0 | 28 Mar 2016, 04:18 PM Post #8 |
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Inter-Forum Gamemaster!
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still have to play Bristol Rovers who are in play-offs, otherwise they have an easy run in ... |
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Royals Rendezvous - a specialist and friendly Reading FC fan forum Cello man... VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEVmGOEMJLE&t=12s Please share ! | |
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| SuffolkRoyal | 28 Mar 2016, 04:27 PM Post #9 |
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Its still a tough prospect, to win 7 consecutive games, at the business end of the season. But if they do it, they fully deserve the record. |
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| Royal Crisp | 28 Mar 2016, 05:14 PM Post #10 |
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It'd be some achievement for a team with their off the field issues. 7 wins in 7 at the end of the season a huge ask though, so looking likely the record is safe for another year, got to be the closest it's been run in a while though. I'm certain it'll be beaten within the next 10 years, teams run it close semi-regularly. Newcastle 09/10, Wolves 13/14, Leicester 13/14, Northampton 15/16, surely only a matter of time. Edited by Royal Crisp, 28 Mar 2016, 05:16 PM.
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"On the pitch I hate all opponents. I don't give a damn about anyone. People say I'm mad, a lunatic. I am a winner." Robin Friday Twitter : https://twitter.com/RoyalCrisp | |
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