Ahead of Saturday afternoons game v Swindon, we look at some (of the many) players that have played for both the Cobblers and Swindon.
Alan Mayes
His goal scoring talent came to light when Bill Dodgin signed him for Northampton Town on a loan deal. He netted four goals in his ten games but was not offered terms by the club.
His parting from Northampton was somewhat ‘bitter’ as he was selected to play against his own club Watford in what was to be his last game for the Cobblers although he did not know it at the time.
Alan returned to Swindon in 1983 netting another 27 league goals for them in two seasons in an attempt to get them out of the fourth division.
Bob Edwards
Bob joined Swindon in 1955 where his career took off Although the club were stuck in the middle of the division three south table he netted 65 goals for them in just over three seasons.
Northampton snapped him up after eighteen months at Carrow road but again the movement of players in and out of the team restricted his appearances. He then stepped down into non-league football.
Eric Weaver
He was to spend five and a half seasons at the County ground, suffer relegation and win promotion yet made just v54 first team appearances. The majority of those were in the 1965-66 season when he had an extended first team run.
Northampton wanted him to join them in 1967 but he chose to join Notts. County where he scored four goals for them in consecutive games. However after four months at Meadow lane he moved on to Northampton in 1968.
He vied with Graham Felton for the right wing position although he could and did play on the left; he also had a run at full back. Eric was released in 1970 and moved into non-league football.
Dave Syrett
Dave came through the ranks at Swindon and netted 32 league and cup goals in four seasons before Peter Morris paid £25,000 to take him to Mansfield. A back injury ended his partnership with Steve Massey. He left and became a milkman in Towcester as well as playing for Brackley Town and coaching youngsters.
Jason Drysdale
Jason joined Swindon from Newcastle in 1994, he made 55 appearances before being realised in March 1998. Northampton took him on until the end of the season .
He was taken off at half time on his debut with a niggling injury and never played again moving into non league football. Jason made just 1 appearance for the Cobblers before leaving for Forest green Rovers.
Russell Lewis
Russell spent seven seasons at Swindon eventually taking over as one of the regular centre backs until being released in 1983. He made 215 appearances for Swindon. Clive Walker signed him to join Wakeley Gage and Aidy Burrows as a ‘three man central defence’.
Russell was a regular and outstayed his two partners; he played under three different managers and won the coveted ‘player of the year’ trophy. He made 155 appearances for the Cobblers.
Frank Large
Frank had been dropped from the Rangers team and was watching Rangers play the Cobblers at White City when the visitors centre Forward, Bert llewellyn was carried off on his debut, Frank was signed to replace him.
Swindon & Carlisle agreed the transfer of Frank over the phone, and told the striker it was up to personal terms, So he drove the 250 miles from Swindon to Carlisle, agreed terms, drove back, and told the family.
On his return to Northampton he scored a hat-trick v Bristol Rovers and still finished on the losing side Rovers won 5-4. Frank made 17 appearances for Swindon scoring 4 goals. He made 250 appearances for the Cobblers scoring 96 goals.
Paul Trollope
Welsh international Paul started his footballing career with swindon however didn’t make a single appearance. Paul was signed by Kevan Broadhurst and appointed captain in July 2002 after making just 16 appearances in the last two seasons for Fulham and Coventry.
In his short stay at Northampton (Two seasons) Paul played under Broadhurst, Terry Fenwick, Martin Wilkinson and Colin Calderwood before being released at the end of 2003-04 season.
Keith East
Keith East started his football life at Fratton Park. But failed to make the first team at Portsmouth.
Next stop was Swindon Town. He joined them the season they were relegated from division two and the following season ended as joint top scorer with Don Rogers, in the division three side.
The 1966/67 season had hardly kicked off before he was moving again this time to Stockport County who won the fourth division title that season. Sadly Keith did not make enough appearances to win a medal as he was mainly used as cover.
Keith joined Northampton for £5,000 and started the season well but soon lost out to the triple strike force of Frank Large, John Fairbrother and Dixie McNeil.
Yaser Kasim
Kasim joined Swindon Town from Macclesfield in August in 2013 he made 137 appearance in the 4 seasons he was with them scoring 9 goals.
Kasim made just 10 appearances for the Cobblers in the one seasons he was with us.
Dennis Brown
Dennis Brown found few first team chances at Chelsea and moved onto Swindon in the season they were relegated from division Two. His goals helped the Robins stay among the third division leaders over the next few seasons.
He agreed to move to Northampton in an exchange deal with Bobby Jones and must have felt shades of de-ja-vu as on his way home to Reading from a game at Northampton against Ipswich he was involved in a car crash that was to end up with him losing a kneecap.
He was almost out for a year. When he returned Northampton was struggling to remain in division three, the following season they did. Dennis had scored only three goals in 24 appearances he was not retained at the end of the season.
Patrick Kanyuka
On his Swindon debut he played the whole game despite having several stitches in a head wound after being accidentally kicked in the head by ex-QPR team mate Paul Furlong. Patrick made 23 appearances for Swindon.
Before joining the Cobblers Patrick had trials with Motherwell. He joined the Cobblers in October 2009 making just 5 appearances.
Andy Willams
Andy joined Swindon in 2012 and spent 3 seasons with them making 103 appearances making 34 goals. Andy was a play off promotion winner with the Cobblers last season scoring in the 4-0 victory over Exeter at Wembley. Making 90 appearance in his two seasons with the Cobblers scoring 21 goals.
Michael Smith
Michael singed for Swindon from Charlton in January 2014 he made 72 appearances and scored 26 goals for Swindon in his one season there. Michael came on loan to the Cobblers in January 2017 making just 14 appearances.
Robert James
Bobby Jones spent just over nine seasons at Eastville but at a time in Rover’s history where they struggled to stop the slide.
They fell from division Two to three and struggled to maintain division three status.
He joined Northampton in 1966 and despite his speed and skill failed to play on a regular basis. When Northampton signed Dennis Brown from Swindon Bobby moved the other way as makeweight. His stay at Swindon was even shorter, by the start of the following season he was back at Rovers giving them another three seasons.
John Cornwell
A move to Newcastle lasted 18 months about the same time that he did at his next club Swindon. Where he spent two seasons making 23 appearances. Three seasons at Southend coincided with their rise to the new division One. He then spent the 1993-94 season out on loan to three different clubs including Northampton.
He did well at the County ground but not well enough to earn a contract and he quit the game to run a public house in Black Notley. He also coached local park teams.
Jordon Turnbull
Jordon joined Swindon on loan from Southampton twice in 2014 and once in 2015 making 98 appearances and scoring 1 goal. Before signing for Coventry City before in January 2018 he joined the Cobblers for an undisclosed fee making 94 appearances in three seasons with the Cobblers including winning promotion through the League Two Play offs.
Richard Green
Kevin Wilson signed the experienced Richard Green when he was released by Walsall when Lee Howey was out injured. He repaid the club by scoring eight minutes into his debut against one of his old clubs, Shrewsbury. He was a regular member of the first team until his retirement in 2001.
Poul Hubetz
Poul became a great favourite at Sixfields, despite standing 6’ 5” he was good on the floor as well as in the air and scored 13 goals. He left after one season as he wanted his children to be educated in his own country and not the tongue in cheek remark that it was because Northampton did not have a ‘Starbucks’ coffee house.
Chris Thompson
Chris was a trainee at the club when given his chance as a substitute in the League cup tie v Middlesbrough. He played just two minutes, a club record, before being released at the end of the season for disciplinary reasons.
Timi Elsnik
Timi came on loan to both Swindon and the Cobblers from Derby County he made 22 appearances and scored 3 goals for Swindon and made just 9 appearance for the Cobblers.
Eric Sabin
Eric made 82 appearances for Swindon and scored 9 goals before moving to QPR.
Eric signed for Northampton while on loan to Boston from Queens Park Rangers and made his debut v Boston, who he was previously on loan to. He became a great favourite with the Sixfield crowd with his speed and skilful play. He missed a penalty in the penalty shoot-out Play off semi-final v Southend in May 2007 and it affected his play.
Joe Harron, William Hartwell, Peter Mikolanda, Neil Brough, Jak McCourt, Roland Coding, Willams Simpson
(We’ve only taken a look at a selection of players that have played for both)