• About this humble little website

Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: Northampton

Empathy

09 Friday May 2014

Posted by laurencereade in N

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bristol Rovers, chris wilder, League 2, Northampton, northampton town, Oxford, oxford united., Sixfields, Town

Saturday 3rd May 2014 ko 15.00

League 2

NORTHAMPTON TOWN 3 (Marquis 29 Toney 33 Kouo-Doumbe 50)

OXFORD UNITED 1 (Williams 6) Williams sent off 19 (violent conduct)

Att 7,529 (1,358 away)

Entry £19

Programme £3

I’ve watched my team lose their league status, and its a perfectly horrible experience, and one I wouldn’t wish on any fan (well perhaps Swindon, but that’s tribal!). The Conference may well be a quasi-League 3 but the process of falling into it still hurts a lot. 6 months ago, Northampton were racing favourites to take that drop, sacked manager Aidy Boothroyd, recruited Oxford United’s Chris Wilder more here, and went into this game out of the relegation zone for the first time this year, needing a point to guarantee League football.

In contrast Oxford had been in the play-off positions virtually all season, but since Wilder’s departure form had slumped with the club destined to finish 8th whatever the result. They had nothing but pride to play for, but the Cobblers’ conundrum was as follows. If they lost and either Wycombe or Bristol Rovers won, they were down, so how the club decided to stage the game surprised me.

Continue reading →

52.251555 -0.899396

Obelisk

14 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by laurencereade in N

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

AFC, Kislingbury, Northampton, Northants Combination, Obelisk

Thursday 10th April 2014 ko 18.30

Northants Combination Division 3

NORTHAMPTON AFC OBELISK 0

KISLINGBURY 1 (Richards 79)

Att 13

80 minute game

Entry FREE

No Programme

 

If you travel to the Kingsthorpe district of Northampton you’ll find an obelisk. It’s not in brilliant condition, its 100 feet’s’ worth of sandstone in need of renovation, despite its Grade II listed status. It was placed there by order of Lord Strafford of Boughton Manor, friend of the 4th Duke of Devonshire, educated here by his tutor the Rector of Boughton, and the inscription reads as follows,

“This Obelisk was erected in the year 1764 in memory of His Grace William Cavendish
Duke of Devonshire.
There in the Rich, the Honour’d, Fam’d and Great,
See the false seat of Happiness Compleat.”

The estate that surrounds it is modern, and as a result the obelisk looks rather out-of-place with its surroundings, but it does serve one purpose; if you want to find a fourth tier Northants Combination game, just aim for the obelisk, and the Obelisk club is to be found at the end of the lane to its left. That said, as I photographed the structure several visiting players asked me whether they were heading in the right direction!

Continue reading →

52.279784 -0.900101

Square Pegs

13 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by laurencereade in O

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Aidy Boothroyd, chris wilder, Danny Rose, James Constable, Northampton, northampton town, Oxford, oxford united.

Saturday 12th October 2013 ko 15.00

League 2

OXFORD UNTED 2 (Constable 44 Rose 45p)

NORTHAMPTON TOWN 0

Att 6,177 (910 away)

Entry S/T

Programme £3

It did seem strange swapping the mud of Bedfordshire for some League 2, but that I suppose is the dichotomy of being a groundhopper but also having a season ticket at a Football League club. It was great to get the occasional text and Twitter message from Craig and others that the day went well, and that by and large the weather was kind.

Oxford versus Northampton is one of those fixtures that looks like a local derby but isn’t. Oxford hate Swindon like no other club, but in the case of Northampton I do wonder who their local rivals are these days. It used to be Continue reading →

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 5,668 other followers

Look for stuff here folks!

Blogroll

  • Damage In The Box Chris Powell’s travels across the UK and Europe. The artist must frequently seen in the pub 0
  • FA Cup Factfile Phil Annets on all things to do with the World’s greatest cup competition 10
  • Football Club History Database Want to know where a club finished in what league and in what year? Richard Rundle’s site is a veritable goldmine! 0
  • Football Hopper “Fast” Eddie McGeown’s erudite perambulations around the nation’s football grounds 0
  • Gibbo's 92 As Atherton Colleries’ programme editor puts it, ” The best trips are random, unplanned and spontaneous.” 0
  • Groundhopping.se Per-Gunnar Nilsson’s trips around his native Sweden, and into Europe 0
  • Grounds for concern The late Mishi Morath’s picture blog. Obviously no longer updated but still a wonderful archive. 0
  • Kate Shrewsday. A thousand thousand stories Not about football, but beautiful writing, Kate can make words dance. 0
  • Los Boyos Matt is Welsh, a teacher, and lives in Malaga. His old “Lost Boyos” blog was essential reading. Here’s the Spanish Sequel!! 0
  • Modus Hopper Random Graham Yapp’s travels 0
  • The 100 Grounds Club Shaun Smith’s groundhopping football blog. The original internet ground logging website. 0
  • The Football Traveller The bible for every groundhopper. Non-League fixtures magazine delivered weekly. Published and edited by Chris Bedford 0
  • The Intinerant Football Watcher Peter finds the grounds other hoppers cannot reach. Top bloke too! 0
  • The66POW Rob Waite’s travels 0

Your very own calendar!

February 2021
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
« Jan    

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.