Five from 5,000 - memorable Cobblers league matches

Northampton Town Football Club played a milestone match on Saturday.

Their 1-1 draw at Cambridge United in League One was the Cobblers' 5,000th league game since the club's formation in 1897.

BBC News looks back at five memorable matches from 128 years of history.

In the 1960s the club enjoyed a rapid rise, achieving three promotions in five years, culminating in their only season in the top flight of English football in 1965-66.

On 17 April 1965, their place in the Division One was sealed with a 4-1 win against Bury at Gigg Lane, with a brace of goals from Don Martin and one each from Bobby Brown and Joe Kiernan.

The Cobblers ultimately finished behind Newcastle United as runners-up in Division Two.

It meant the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea were welcomed to the County Ground - the club's home until 1994 and shared with Northamptonshire County Cricket Club.

Despite memorable wins over Aston Villa, Fulham and West Ham, Town narrowly missed out on a second season in the sun.

Incredibly, by the conclusion of the 1968-69 season they had been relegated back to Division Four (League Two) to bring about Northampton's very own sense of the swinging sixties.

Since the late 60s, Northampton Town have played all of their league football in either the third or fourth tier of English football.

The club has had several brushes with relegation to non-league football on more than one occasion since, but perhaps the closest was on 8 May 1993.

The Cobblers fought back from 2-0 down at half-time to beat Shrewsbury Town 3-2 at Gay Meadow and secure their status as a Football League club.

The winning goal famously rebounded off striker Pat Gavin's backside as he charged down a clearance by the Shrews' goalkeeper to the delight of thousands of travelling fans.

Survival in 1992-93 almost counted for nothing when the Cobblers finished bottom of Division Four the following season - but they were spared relegation after Conference winners Kidderminster Harriers were told their stadium did not meet the Football League's capacity requirements.

It also meant that life at the club's new Sixfields Stadium did not begin in non-league and provided a springboard to better times later in the 1990s.

The Cobblers escaped the basement division of English league football in 1997 after victory in a Wembley play-off final against Swansea City.

And, in what remains their most successful league season since their 1960s rise and fall, Ian Atkins' side were again in play-off contention in 1998.

After finishing the regular season in fourth position, they faced Bristol Rovers in the play-off semi-finals, but a 3-1 defeat in the first leg left them with a huge task for the second leg at Sixfields Stadium.

A Carl Heggs goal had brought Town back to within one goal of Rovers before second-half strikes from Ian Clarkson and Ray Warburton stunned The Gas on a night which many fans remember as the club's finest of the Sixfields era.

Despite the 4-3 aggregate win, Northampton were unable to seal a return to the top division of the Football League as they were edged out 1-0 by Grimsby Town in front of over 62,000 fans at Wembley - with more than 40,000 of those having made the trip from Northamptonshire.

From the brink of oblivion to winning promotion. A familiar tale, but one rarely told from start to finish in only 135 days.

In November 2015, Northampton Town were in turmoil after a £10.25m loan from Northampton Borough Council to help redevelop Sixfield Stadium had seemingly disappeared.

Players and staff went unpaid for months and a winding-up petition was sought by HM Revenue & Customs which was owed £166,000.

Football became a sideshow as the club's fight for survival off the pitch rumbled on for weeks, but after a 2-1 win at Notts County on 21 November, boss Chris Wilder made an impassioned five-minute pitchside rant which went down in folklore.

Wilder publicly called on the club's owner David Cardoza to accept a "deal to take this club forward".

Within 48 hours, former Oxford United chairman had agreed a takeover - clearing the tax bill and saving the club.

It prompted a sensational run of form as they lost only one league game for the rest of the season and embarked on a 10-game winning run.

Come 9 April, the Cobblers - under new ownership - would seal promotion on their way to becoming League Two champions with 99 points.

Against the global backdrop of the Covid pandemic, football behind closed doors became the norm in 2020 and much of 2021.

But when the curtailed 2019-20 League Two season resumed to hold its promotion play-offs, Northampton and Exeter City made an unusual type of history.

The Cobblers' 4-0 win was the first competitive game to be played at Wembley behind closed doors, with just a few hundred people inside instead of the tens of thousands usually associated with a play-off final.

There were stringent safety measures, cardboard cut-outs in place of real fans and the national anthem was pre-recorded.

Goals from Ryan Watson, Callum Morton, Sam Hoskins and Andy Williams helped secure another return to League One for Keith Curle's side.

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