COBBLERS: Big freeze frustration may go on

Published on Monday 11 January 2010 10:34

The Cobblers are bracing themselves for another blank weekend with the game at Macclesfield already in doubt.

Town's match against Chesterfield was called off on Friday lunchtime with a section of the Sixfields pitch in front of the south stand frozen solid.

And it looks like being a similar story at Moss Rose, along with at every other Football League ground this weekend, leaving Northampton with the prospect of an enforced two-week winter break.

For Ian Sampson it could not have come at a worse time, with his side building some real momentum on the back of five games without defeat.

With the exception of Liam Davis, the manager also has an injury-free squad, and one bolstered by a treble helping of new January transfer window blood in the form of striker Stephen O'Flynn, midfielder Kevin Thornton and defender Luke Wilkinson.

But the Northampton boss is confident the interruption will not affect the form of his team, who were warming up nicely before the cold snap.

"The players will remain focused, I can assure you of that," he said. "I think every team will be in the same boat when we come through this spell.

"The teams on bad runs will still be on bad runs, and the teams on good runs will still be on good runs, but it has been frustrating."

Sampson concedes that there was no way the Chesterfield game could go ahead despite the very best efforts of the ground staff.

"The covers on the part of the pitch were quadrupled because it's a section of the pitch that we've had problems with before," he said. "It was bone hard and a fork wouldn't go into it on Friday; it wasn't going to get any better. It wasn't a big part of the pitch but it was dangerous."

The squad will do their best to prepare for Saturday's game at Macclesfield, with the manager treating it as normal even though it looks highly unlikely to go ahead.

A major issue in the past week has been finding somewhere to train, with the squad limited to five-a-side sessions, and the majority of them indoors.

"We trained at Benham on Thursday and then we tried to do a few things on the back pitch on Friday but it was a tricky and a bit dangerous, really," he said.

"We'll try again today but it's been difficult finding somewhere and when we do, we can't do any shape or set-piece stuff because you haven't got the space. We've mainly just been having five-a-sides and talking things through."

Macclesfield were due to play at Notts County on Saturday, but the whole Coca-Cola League Two programme was wiped out by the weather, and it probably will be again this weekend.

The final word is perhaps best left to Moss Rose groundsman Dean Johnson, whose verdict is not an encouraging one.

He said: "The best we can do really is try and shift some areas of the snow to let the sunlight get to it and onto the covers, but it's really just a mater of waiting for it to warm up, and that could take well over a week yet."

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Weather for Northampton

Friday 10 February 2012

5 day forecast

Today

Sunny spells

Temperature: -6 C to 1 C

Wind Speed: 13 mph

Wind direction: South east

Tomorrow

Sunny spells

Temperature: -5 C to -0 C

Wind Speed: 7 mph

Wind direction: South east

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COBBLERS: Big freeze frustration may go on

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