Phil Yelland takes a look at The Bluebirds' previous record in Northampton as we prepare for our first ever visit to Sixfields Stadium.
Tuesday night sees us make our first ever to Sixfields Stadium to play Northampton Town, although we have in the past played them at The County Ground in both Division Three and Division Four during our first spell in the Football League.
We probably don’t want to dwell on our record in Northampton - it currently stands at seven visits, seven defeats, with 21 goals conceded in the process and none scored. We will certainly want to start improving on that on Tuesday.
Our first visit to The County Ground took place on the final day of the first season of Division Four in April 1959 when we went down to a 2-0 defeat. The following season we shipped six goals without reply, again in April.
The 1960/61 season saw The Cobblers begin their ascent of the Football League, winning promotion and defeating us 3-0 at The County Ground. That same season we recorded our first win over Town at Holker Street thanks to a Barrie Lowes goal.
The next time we met was in Division Three during the 1967/68 season. In the intervening years, Town had reached the heights of Division One (1965/66) and were now on the way down again. In March 1968, they avenged our 4-0 win at Holker Street in November 1967 by winning 3-0.
The 1968/69 season saw The Cobblers relegated to Division Four but in the process they did the double over us, winning 2-0 at Holker Street and enjoying a 4-0 win at The County Ground.
We met again two seasons later, after our relegation and, in September 1970, we recorded our best result at The County Ground - a 1-0 defeat. Our final visit to that venue came the following October when we lost 2-0 on a Friday night – and even that was an improvement on the previous Saturday when we had lost 7-0 at Peterborough.
A number of players have featured for both sides, including our current skipper Ollie Banks who played three times on loan for The Cobblers in 2014. Goalkeeper Steve Arnold, who helped us stay in the National League in the 2017/18 season, and our first Player Manager of the non-league era, Peter Kane, also played for Northampton.
Let’s hope we can create a new chapter in our meetings with Town on Tuesday by returning home with a least a point.