League 2: Northampton Town Ready to Go

Up. I hope. League 2 got underway yesterday and NHT tied nilnil with Stanley. I searched for a feed for the game but there was nothing doing other then a few new viruses on my computer now. There were some live chat things going on so I could keep up with the game. Of course stats and recaps tell the story as well.

I was really happy to hear about the return of Adebayo Akinfenwa. He was with the team when I started following (or discovering, I should say) them back a couple years ago. He's a good striker. And a consistent one. One crazy thing I found in his goal scoring history is that it looks like he scored 11 goals in his first 22 games. Granted... he started with Barry Town in 2002 but his 7 goals in 8 games his first year turned some heads for sure.

One thing I've learnt about the English soccer tier is that when you have some above average talent as a young player things can get all wonky like.

The next year (2003-04) he started with Barry but Boston Utd picked him up early only for a short stint though because that same year Leyton Orient came calling. That didn't last long either. No goals, no starts. Finally, his last team that year was Doncaster where he promptly scored 4 goals in 9 apps.

When the 2004-05 season came he moved up the English soccer ladder. Torquay United. 14 goals, 37 appearances. He just about maintained his scoring efficiency even at a higher level and with more games (.38 goals p/GM with Torquay, .42 for his first two professional years.

In 2004 Swansea latched on to him and he stayed put there for two years. Even better competition here. His goals scoring rated dropped down to .24 p/GM. Swansea, in turn dropped him. Millwall picked him up. No goals here in 7 games in 2007. Perhaps his career was thought to be on the down swing.

Not so fast though. That same year is where we get to Northampton Town and he regained form. 7 goals in 15 games. He ended up staying there for 3 years with an outstanding goal scoring record. 37 goals in 88 games (.42). Back to where he was when he was with Barry, Boston Utd, Leyton and Doncaster in his first 2 years.

Again, with heads turned, 2010 saw him move back up to Gillingham where they played him just about every game. His efficiency went back down though. 11 goals in 44 (.25). So back to NHT he came.

I heard the crowd at Sixfields was very happy to see him back. With that goal rate of just about a goal every other game? I am too.

Long post here to spend on one guy, but it is pretty impressive what he has done in 8 years. All the moves, all the goals. Overall: 87 goals in 259 appearances (0.34). For comparison, that is a Fredy Montero like rate here in the MLS (.35) and even close to a Brek Shea (.40).

Another reason I spent some time with Akinfenwa? He doesn't quite look like any striker I've ever seen.

Northampton Town 2 Liverpool 2

The Cobblers pulled it off (last week) on penalties. What a win for them. Liverpool had mostly reserves playing in this Carling Cup match... still... I'm no expert, but i'm pretty sure this sort of thing shouldn't happen. Nice work Cobblers!

I read somewhere that this game ensures that Northampton will be turning a profit for the year now. Something about that I like because I know that more then a few Premier League teams are in financial trouble.

This will be a game long forgotten in the world of soccer, in fact it may already be. But for NHT it is a win for the ages.

The 59

"Our fans were fantastic and I want to say a big thank you to the 59 people who made the trip to support us. They are the real loyal supporters, they gave us fantastic support and we let them down badly."

- Ian Sampson, Northampton Town Cobblers

Not sure I've ever read a quote like that.

The Cobblers are struggling this year and just came off a 4-0 loss to Hartlepool.

Speaking of 59. The Nationals are drawing some record crowds around the country. A comment under this post mused about the 59 folks that showed up. Ahh, late August baseball for teams in the basement. There is a charm to it. Really. Die hard fans are the only ones left. One of them is over at "The Nationals Enquirer". This time of year you get some real gems. I'm going to steal some of his thunder here, but it is too funny to pass up.

"During Wednesday night's Nationals-Astros game on MASN, Ray Knight seemed to come to the realization that he was armed with a telestrator in the MASN TV booth (as you probably know, Ray's been filling in for Rob Dibble the last few games of this road trip). For a few minutes in the second inning, Ray pretty much went off the deep end with his newfound telestrator power, attempting to telestrate...everything. The results were a bit confusing mostly, but let the record show that we like Ray Knight in the booth paired up with Bob Carpenter. We just hope MASN confiscates his telestrator pen from here on out."

English League Two

Cheerleaders?

Still playing the heck out of FIFA 10 and loving every minute of it. I read a good article over at a site http://www.epltalk.com/ where they go on and on about soccer catching on here in the US. A lot of good responses. Most of which focused on picking some teams to follow. I am happy and surprised to report that I think I have a couple. Getting pretty excited about it.

Stoke City Potters and Northampton Town Cobblers.

The NHT will be more difficult to follow being in League Two, but I'm committed. There are a couple good places to follow teams around the web. One being the team site itself (where there is an video player) and the other that frat house called ESPN. They actually have some up to date stuff on lower leagues. It can be found here. I gotten very familiar with the Cobblers. I unwittingly put them in a huge custom league in FIFA 10. I picked a bunch of random teams from all over the world. I'm something like 40 games in. I don't think I've every played that many games in a sports video game for a very long time. If ever. It is endlessly entertaining with so many teams and different ways to customize leagues. It's one of the only sports games where I actually feel and can see a drastic difference in players ability. Strengths, weaknesses. For example; Seb Harris for Northampton has a nack for getting the ball, just can't control it on the dribble and doesn't have the speed of some of his teammates like Liam Davis. He is also a good shot if he can get is foot on it in the box.

Another good feature in the game is the create a player. While it may only be one you have to build up your skills like a RPG instead of just assigning ratings to them. Never have I been a fan of this in the past but it works very well here.

Anyway, lots of homework to do on both the Premier League and the lower leagues. More then enough information out there to read up on and I need to quick, season starts in a couple weeks!

Northampton Town

The Cobblers. Northampton Town Cobblers are 15 miles south of where my mother was born (Kettering, England). I've been playing a bit of the FIFA 10 and I was happy to find three leagues in England represented. The Cobblers were in the third league last year (which, I think this year is going to be the nPower League), which would be kinda similar to Double A minor league baseball here in the US. I say "kinda" because the more I look at the info page on the Cobblers the more I start to think; "Does everyone in England play soccer?". Even a third tier team like the Cobblers have a Reserve team (guys the stay in shape playing other reserves), a youth team, a ladies team, the Northampton Town Girls under 12 Player Development Squad, a multidisabled team, and finally... a fan team.

Their stadium; Sixfields is beautiful. It's as good as any University stadium I've seen in the US. It seats about five thousand. Smaller then the Columbus Crew stadium, but somehow... more elegant.

It's hard to wrap my head around all this really. With all the soccer hullaballu going on around the WC, it's exciting to think about planning a trip to England this fall to watch me some Cobbler football. Heck, they may even throw a 'random American fan day' for me, if they can fit it in. They have events for everything else. Click HERE to find out everything you want to know about Cobbler Football.

So, back to FIFA 10 (PS3 version). Excellent, excellent game. Been playing a lot this July 4th weekend. There is so much in this sports game, it's hard to beat. Live leagues; meaning they will compare what you do to what 'really' happened. In real time. You can create a pro player. Make your own tournaments. There are more teams and leagues then any game I've ever seen. It is mind boggling. It makes Madden look silly.

I'm up to playing on the second lowest difficulty. I created a league of 32 strong teams to pit against my Northampton Town. I'm toiling around against the likes of Roma, Chelsea, Barcelona.

My last bit of message here is about the bigger picture in regards to English Football... It's not going anywhere. Calm down. It is so woven into the fabric of your culture. While you may not be the best team year in year out. You will always have a great team to pull for for a long, long time. The very existence of Northampton proves that.