To keep you entertained during these times I’m going to be taking you down memory lane and having look back at the 1986/87 championship winning season.
October 25 – Northampton Town 3 Hereford Utd 2
GRAHAM CARR celebrated his Manager of the Month award and his 42nd birthday, but Hereford United very nearly turned out to be gate crashers.
At a half-time 3-0, there seemed nothing to stop the party romp. But in the end it needed a linesman’s flag to prevent the Birthday Boy from going home in a bad mood.Stewart Phillips thought he’d scored his second and the team’s third in the dying minutes. As he wheeled away with joy he saw a linesman’s flag ruling it out.
Three first half goals were the perfect mixer to go with the Bell’s gallon bottle of scotch. All three came in the first 21 minutes from Trevor Morley, Ian Benjamin and Richard
Hill. In the second half the Cobblers had to play against a strong wind and Hereford almost made it count. Phillips and John Devine gave the Cobblers players and fans all sorts of anxiety symptoms before the final whistle came as welcome relief.
“I told the players it would be like the Alamo in the second half,” said Carr .. There was no respite for the players. Carr had them in training on Sunday in readiness for the game at Stockport County on Monday night. But when it was all over, the players were treated to a slap-up meal as Carr explained. They have had to work very hard over the last five days, but now they can let their hair down.”
October 27 – Stockport 0 Northampton 3
GRAHAM Carr, whose touchlines antics are sometimes as enjoyable as his team’s football,
talked himself into trouble with the referee. But although he was banned from the
touchline, his booming Geordie voice could still be heard echoing out from the half empty Edgeley Park stand.
It was the second ‘sending-off’ for the flamboyant Carr, whose choice of comment could, at best, be described as colourful. The brush with officialdom did nothing to take the gloss of yet another barnstorming success.
Two goals from Richard Hill one from Trevor Morley cleared another obstacle from
the Cobblers path. Morley’ s goal summed up Stockport’s miserable night, for as goalkeeper Simon Farnworth tried to hack clear the ball hit the Cobblers skipper and bounced into an empty net for a last-minute goal.
Hill’s goals were rather more spectacular the first, a header, after a pinpoint McGoldrick cross; the second, a run and spot provided by Benjamin’s intelligent flick.
“Our better class of player told. It was heavy surface, but we adapted to it well,” Said Carr, Who wasn’t the only one to upset the referee. Warren Donald was booked for the sixth time, for petulantly kicking the ball away. Graham Read and Phil Chard also went into the book.
November 1 – Hartlepool Utd 3 Northampton Town 3
A CLUB record of eight straight victories blew away in the chilly wastes of Hartlepool’s
Victoria Ground.
Forced to change in a Mobile Unit and then faced with driving rain, the Cobblers never really looked like pulling off another win. Indeed it took a Richard Hill equaliser five minutes from time to salvage a point from this bleak outpost. The ground is only a goal kick from the North Sea, and for all the control the players could muster they might as well have been playing in it.
“I just wish the conditions had been better. I would have fancied our chances then,” sighed Graham Carr. “It was a real leveller; the sort of conditions that thoioughbreds cannot play on.”
Richard Hill’s two goals gave him 14 – the best in the country. Phil Chard got away with
a weak penalty for the other goal. Newly married Hill also picked up his first booking. He put his reformed image down to the influence of his wife!
Hartlepool’s Roy Hogan converted a penalty for Pool; a Kevin Dixon header and a Russell Wilcox own goal accounted for the other’s.
November 4 – Orient 0 Northampton Town 1
ONLY one goal for the Cobblers, but it was enough to give them three more points in
their relentless pursuit of the title. And it again had cock-a-hoop boss Graham Carr doing a victory jig on the pitch.
Ian Benjamin conjured the sole strike after just 11 minutes, and long before the end the Brisbane Road fans had become agitated by their team’s attempts to crack the Cobblers.
They had only four attempts on goal as the Cobblers, for once, produced a workmanlike display.
It was not the vintage, rampaging stuff the growing band of travelling fans had come to
expect, but Carr shrugged that off. “It was another great away performance. I couldn’t be more pleased,” roared Carr.
Carr had the rare experience of having to make a change. Eddie McGoldrick’s injury gave Bob Coy the chance to come off the substitute’s bench. The only goal came when Richard Hill robbed a defender and the ace scorer turned provider for Benjamin.
Peter Gleasure had some work to do in the first half as Orient suggested a revival, but he had only a watching brief in the second half – watching the team go eight points clear with the season only a third of the way through.
Make sure you keep an eye on our social media for many more looking back articles plus much more. Keeping you entertained during this time. Much of this information has been found from Frank Grandes records and Northampton Chronicle and Eco.