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.  

The 1986/87 season was an unforgettable season of football at the Cobblers. We look back on some of the games in September 1986 and in this month, it saw Mark Schiavi join Cambridge United. Paul Curtis was also told he can find another club. Aidy Mann joined Southampton on loan where ex-manager Tony Barton is assistant manager.

September 20 – Swansea City 2 – Northampton Town 1

COBBLERS boss Graham Carr divorced himself from all the praise being showered on his team to underline an unexpected development – the sudden loss of form of powerhouse midfield ace Richard Hill.

Almost 7,000 fans basking in brilliant football to match the autumn sunshine, could well have been watching this season’s Division Four champions – such was the quality of a fiercely competitive game.

That is, almost verbatim, what was written at the time. It is nice to be proved right even if bets were hedged about which team would come out on top. No-one could have envisaged then the enormous gap that would separate the sides when they met again on St. Valentine’s Day.

Swansea looked championship material, but they were 20 points adrift come February 11!

Hill, perhaps stung by criticism from his footballing mentor Graham Carr, went on, of course, to emphatically answer the doubts and rocket into the £200,000 bracket.

But in this game, he was anonymous along with Eddie McGoldrick and Ian Benjamin. Defensively the Cobblers allowed two angled crosses from 39-year-old Tommy Hutchinson to be converted into goals. Both times Phil Chard was left exposed at the far post.

The same player also showed he could be lethal in the air with a devastating header on

the stroke of half time. The most exciting period, though, was the last 20 minutes when Trevor Morley could have clinched one, even three points, but his finishing did not match some superb approach play.

September 29 – Northampton 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1

THERE is still a magic to the name of Wolverhampton Wanderers even if they are one of saddest victims of the game’s decline. They command a healthy following, and over 5,700 saw this fluctuating game.

The Cobblers were dominant in the first 45minutes, thanks to the superb prompting of Dave Gilbert. He carved out the first goal for Trevor Morley and was the master of every free-kick.

So much danger had come from the left-hand side that it was something of a surprise when Eddie McGoldrick was the architect of the second goal with a deep cross headed home by Richard Hill.

As if embarrassed by their first-half lack of effort, Wolves stormed back for 25 minutes after the break and were rewarded with an Andy Mutch goal.

 The Cobblers picked themselves off the floor and could have widened the margin of victory, but chances went begging. The game marked the first touch of League football for Russell Wilcox, injured pre-season at West Brom. He came on for Warren Donald and didn’t look out of place in midfield.

Graham Carr suggested it wasn’t surprising that Wolves were a different proposition in the second half. “They had a very good following and if we had been in the same circumstances it would have made us want to play”

Carr picked out Gilbert for particular praise. “I thought he had a terrific game. He was outstanding and worth his place for set pieces alone”   

September 30 – Halifax Town 3 – Northampton Town 6

A SIZZLING Richard Hill hat-trick capped an extraordinary performance at Halifax, the team that was then propping up the fourth division.

For a man who was to score in record-breaking fashion, Hill had been strangely off-colour in recent games. But he burst back to life with three superb goals and Warren Donald, Ian Benjamin and Phil Chard added two more classy efforts to shatter Halifax. His last was a penalty, normally the prerogative of Chard, to give him the hat-trick. Yet the defensive blunders that had allowed Halifax back to 4-3 almost overshadowed a hectic night at The Shay.

Graham Carr said; “We just can’t sit back, we find it impossible,” I can’t tell them to play any other way, but Halifax did very well to get back into the game. We were our own worst enemies because we were very sloppy in defence. All the defenders were quiet when they came into the dressing room at the end you could tell by their faces what they thought.”

“But I didn’t want to shout and rave about it – so we just had a chat to sort it out. I thought the difference was in midfield where Richard Hill and Warren Donald were stronger and won it for us.”

The Halifax result triggered off an astonishing sequence of 11 games (10 of them won) when the Cobblers only once dipped below scoring three goals. By now the mental toughening of which Carr had spoken was apparent towards the end of the game. The training had given the team the strength to finish games much stronger than the opposition. But the all-action style led to many more games where Cobblers proved a soft touch in defence.

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.