To keep you entertained during these times I’m going to be taking you down memory lane and having a look back at the 1986/87 championship-winning season.   

The 1986/87 season was an unforgettable season of football at the Cobblers. Manager Graham Carr decided that he needed to add one or two more players to ensure the club made a promotion bid this season. Eddie McGoldrick a winger and Alan Harris a goalkeeper made the well-trodden road from Nuneaton. David Gilbert a midfield player stepped up from Boston and Russell Wilcox from Frickley. All four players came from non-league football. Here is how the season began.

August 23 – Scunthorpe 2 Northampton Town 2

With the opening game of the 1986/87 seasons only 10 minutes old, the formidable Cobblers attack had stunned Scunthorpe with two goals. It looked certain that the team would start with a win for the first time in eight years. As it was not to be.

On the hour Scunthorpe woke up the drowsy Old Show Ground fans with two goals in a minute and the Cobblers had to hang on to one point. It was a fair indication of what was to follow, although of course, the Cobblers were to give away precious few more points as they strolled clear of the field.

Richard Hill, seeking to beat his 19-goal tally of the previous season, crashed in a long Phil Chard throw and then Graham Reed was the first man to a Dave Gilbert corner.

Miraculously skipper Trevor Morley, who at one stage was apparently going to miss three months of the season because of a summer operation, came through the game unscathed.

Not so the Cobblers pride as Steve Cammack and Les Hunter shocked the Cobblers out of their impressive stride.

August 31 – Northampton Town 1 Torquay 0

IAN Benjamin scored one of the softest goals of his career to set the cobblers off on a County Ground winning streak of eight League games.

It came courtesy of the outrageous Torquay goalkeeper John Smeulders, a sort of poor man’s Bruce Grobbelaar, just a minute from half time.

Big Benji, playing somewhat within himself because of the hard ground that jarred his troublesome back problem, got little power behind a shot from outside the box. But for Smeulders it was little short of a Cruise missile. He dived much too soon and saw the ball bobble over this prostrate body.

The one error undermined Torquay’s determination, not only for a point but to bore the pants off a respectable 3,558 home gate – just a taster of things to come. Graham Carr didn’t mince his words about the opposition.

“I would never let a side of mine go out and play like that. I would rather get beaten four-five and entertain than defend

The irony, however, was that a far from secure Cobblers defence twice exposed Peter Gleasure, who needed to produce two excellent saves, the second in the dying seconds.

That came after Keith McPherson had tried to usher the ball out of play only for Pyle to retrieve it and square for Mardiello, whose first-time shot was beaten away by Gleasure.

September 6 – Rochdale 1 Northampton Town 2

Phil Chard launched himself on a record-breaking season with a glorious winner.

Rochdale, who was to spend most of the season worried about their Football League status, gave the Cobblers a torrid time early on.

But the Cobblers weathered the storm and after Trevor Morley had missed a sitter, he redeemed himself with a perfectly weighted cross that Ian Benjamin tucked away.  Steve Taylor, the Fourth Division’s leading scorer in 1985/86, equalised before the interval.

The Cobblers clinched the three points when Chard stole up from full-back to deliver a telling header from Graham Reed’s cross. Keith McPherson had an outstanding game, hitting the crossbar with a header, and making a superb last-ditch tackle when the game was poised on a knife-edge at 1-1.

September 14 – Northampton Town 2 – Peterborough United 1

ON TOP OF THE WORLD, proclaimed the Chronicle and Echo after the Cobblers swatted aside the threat of old adversaries Peterborough United.

A bit strong, perhaps, but it reflected the growing euphoria in the town as Graham Carr’s mentally toughened troops went to the top of affairs in Division Four – never to be headed – on September 14.

The mental toughening – as Carr called it was the weekly training schedule, which was to become legendary as the Cobblers caught the eye of a much wider footballing public via television.

Goals from Trevor Morley and a Phil Chard penalty against his old team sent them surging to the top for the first time since March, But the Cobblers defensive vulnerability allowed Posh a glimmer of hope with a goal from veteran David Gregory, coming on as a substitute in the second half.

In the Peterborough camp it was described as SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY, a supposed bloodbath. But apart from one dangerous tackle by Hill on Alan Paris, the moans were nothing more than wingeing from Posh boss John Wile, destined not to see the season out.

In truth, his team were a bunch of outcasts, easily recognisable as a Cobblers side of the not-too-distant past. Morley converted a Graham Reed cross after four minutes, and then Phil Chard put away a 41st minute penalty after Steve Collins had upended Eddie McGoldrick.

Said Carr: “If we are going to stay at the top, we need to be mentally strong. Some of the lads cannot believe the amount of work we are doing. It is not that they need to be any more physically fit, but it gives them a mental hammering.”

September 17 – Northampton 2 – Tranmere Rovers 0

THIS was described in the Chronicle and Echo as ‘the art of doing just enough to win’. Eddie McGoldrick fired the Cobblers in front with yet another early goal (nine minutes) and Richard Hill, after being effectively shackled, suddenly turned on the power to make the game safe 11 minutes from time.

The season before Rovers had found themselves in a similar situation and proceeded to pull both goals back in the final 10 minutes.

This time player-manager Frank Worthington – another boss not to last the full term – decided it was a lost cause and got only as far as removing his tracksuit bottom.

The Cobblers had now taken 13 points from their first five unbeaten away games. A rude awakening was about to hit them in their next game. 

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 ion Frank Grandes records and Northampton Chronicle and Eco.