For February 21st I'm going back 6 years to 2015 and Northampton Town's League 2 game with York City.
This game is memorable to me because I had a houseful of visiting Canadians who were wanting to soak up a typical English experience. What could be more typical than an afternoon watching our national sport? And better still, the chance to see the mighty Minstermen! I will never forget Sara's joyful cry of "Go random sports team!" as York crossed the halfway line! The game finished 3-0 to the Cobblers, their nickname a reference to the town being the historic home of England's shoe-making industry. York were poor and were quite appropriately given a shoeing!
My first ever visit to Northampton was in 1980 to watch them against York at their former ground, the County Ground, still home of Northamptonshire Cricket Club. The football club moved out of the County ground in 1994. In my mind the Sixfields Stadium, Town's new home, is still a new ground. It's somewhat sobering to realise that they've now played there for 27 years. This was my 4th visit.
York were onto their second manager of the season. Nigel Worthington had resigned the previous October to be replaced by former Scunthorpe United gaffer Russ Wilcox. Northampton were being managed by Chris Wilder who has since gone onto much better things in the Premier League with Sheffield United. Another notable on the Northampton bench was substitute Ivan Toney who has risen steadily through the leagues to the point where, today, he is on the cusp of the Premier League himself with Brentford.
This was a bit of a "nothing season" for both clubs. Northampton finished 12th whilst York finished 18th. York had only come back into the Football League in 2012/3 following 8 seasons in the non-league wilderness. Little did they know it but this was to be their penultimate season back in the league as they finished bottom of League 2 the following season and were dumped back into non-league.
CRB Match No. 2025
Your memory of the details is truly impressive!
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