Northampton Town host Fleetwood Town at Sixfields this Saturday in an important weekend in League One. Fleetwood are scarily close to the relegation zone and desperately need a win, whereas Northampton are comfortably in the mid table but further away from the Play-offs than they would like.
Northampton Town currently sit 13th in League One after 19 games. The Cobblers have seven wins, two draws and ten losses, leaving them on 23 points, eight points above the relegation zone and ten points adrift from the Play-offs.
In their last five games in all competitions, Northampton have three wins and two losses. Marc Leonard and Sam Hoskins both scored in the second half as Northampton beat Burton 2 - 0, despite having less of the possession. In the Football League Trophy, Northampton travelled to MK Dons. Manny Monthe gave Northampton the lead, but a strong start to the second half with goals from Charlie Waller and Darragh Burns giving MK Dons the 2 - 1 lead. A Tyreece Simpson penalty drew Northampton level but within a minute Dawson Devoy scored to give MK Dons the 3 - 2 win.
Northampton bounced back against Cambridge United. Kieron Bowie and Hoskins both scored early in the second half and Cambridge looked to mount a comeback after Gassan Ahadme scored. However, the red card to Paul Digby put a stop to that and gave Northampton the 2 - 1 win. Another 2 - 1 win for Northampton came against Blackpool. Bowie and Hoskins scored again, Jordan Rhodes did score for Blackpool but Northampton won 2 - 1.
The last time out for Northampton was against Portsmouth. A brace from Paddy Lane and a goal from Sean Raggett gave Portsmouth the dominant 3 - 0 win.
Fleetwood Town, on the other hand, sit 21st in League One. In 18 games, Fleetwood have four wins, four draws and ten losses which leaves them on 16 points, just one point ahead of Carlisle in the final spot in the relegation zone.
In their last five games in all competitions, Fleetwood have one win and four losses. The one win came against Exeter City. Ryan Broom, Brendan Sarpong-Wiredu and Phoenix Patterson all scored in the 3 - 0 win for Fleetwood despite having just 44% of the possession. However, next time out, Fleetwood was on the wrong side of a 3 - 0 scoreline. Jamie Reid, Ben Thompson and Elliott List were all on the scoresheet as Stevenage beat Fleetwood 3 - 0.
Another 3 - 0 loss came Fleetwood’s way, this time against Wigan. Jordan Jones and Sean Clare gave Wigan an early 2 - 0 lead and after Josh Earl’s red card just before halftime, Fleetwood were even more open. Tom Pearce scored in the second half to secure the 3 - 0 win for Wigan. An even bigger loss happened against Cambridge in the Second round of the FA Cup. Danny Andrew, Elias Kachunga, Fejiri Okenabirhie and Gassan Ahadme all scored in the 4 - 0 win for Cambridge.
The most recent outing for Fleetwood was against Derby in the Football League Trophy. A brace from James Collins and a goal from Tyreece John-Jules gave Derby the 3 - 0 win.
Northampton and Fleetwood have met just 11 times, with the first meeting coming as recently as 2009. Not much separates the two sides, as Northampton has four wins whereas Fleetwood has five wins, with the other two games ending in a draw.