Time To Hold Our Nerve

I never made it around to writing part two of my previous post, there were a couple of reasons behind that. 1. I'm lazy. 2. I'm lazy. 3. I'm lazy.

Since writing that post my views have also changed slightly, which is probably a bit of a surprise considering things have got worse for Cobblers since that time. Do I still want Boothroyd to be sacked? No. Do I think he's the right man for the job? No. Can I think of a genuine candidate to replace him? No. Do I love Northampton Town Football Club? Yes.

That last point is one that all fans should ponder, do you love your club? Do you want what is best for your club? Of course you do or you wouldn't support them. It's for this reason that lots of people are reactionary after poor results or performances, they care so much they want it to change, they want their team to be a success and it frustrates them when things don't go well. Does this make them bad supporters? No. Everyone that follows Cobblers is entitled to their own view on things and everyone should remember that we all want the same thing, a successful football club, both on and off the pitch. You don't like the manager? Still support the team. You don't like the match day experience? Still support the team. Times have been much, much tougher for Cobblers, remember the McRitchie era? When Di Stefano almost bought the club? Terry Fenwick? Shrewsbury away? The list of rock bottoms is almost endless, pretty typical for a club our size.

Currently we sit 2nd bottom of the entire Football League, it fucking sucks but we've been here before haven't we and survived just fine. The positive to remember is that we have a genuine future to be excited about, the club is finally going to be able to compete financially thanks to the agreed redevelopment of Sixfields Stadium. People that look at the ground deal from the outside often say throwaway comments such as 'you can't even fill the stadium now' - this is such a blinkered view on things. When Sixfields was built it was modern and a huge step forward for Northampton who up until then were playing their games at Northants County Cricket Club, although the ground had character it was also quite clearly a shit hole and Sixfields was a massive improvement. The problem is that football has moved on since the 90's and creating money through corporate ventures has become imperative. Sixfields does not allow the club to maximise its income due to the limited conference facilities and lack of executive boxes but a redeveloped ground will allow all of those things to become a reality. It's a relatively simple process in terms of working out its importance...More £££ thanks to corporate facilities = more £££ for the team = a better team = more fans coming to watch = more £££ for the club, simple as that.

Will it work? Nobody can truly say either way but it's the best chance the club has had, probably ever, to become a real force in the lower leagues. As a club the ultimate aim must surely be to become an established Championship team, this is of course some way off but it's a dream that we can now genuinely look at and think it may become reality and what a reality it would be. How does this all link in to our current situation? I'll explain...

Things are not right at the moment but changing things now would achieve nothing, absolutely nothing. We need to stick with what we have got and embrace stability as it has been proven that stability actually works in football. In January if things are still poor then perhaps we can re-evaluate things, hopefully by then the injured players, of which 4 are key, will be back firing on all cylinders. Everyone is feeling the pressure, players, the board, the fans and perhaps most importantly Aidy Boothroyd himself. This is a good thing and can benefit everyone in the long run - when the going gets tough, the tough get going. I genuinely think we will come out of this spell a much stronger club overall and that will be huge in the long run. As a club we are still on the cusp of 'take off' and I can sense it is just around the corner, of course there are frustrations about the team currently and the lack of a striker to call upon coupled with question marks over some of the summer signings but when they pull the claret shirt on they need our support. The time is now for everyone to pull in one direction, one way or another.