Sampson refuses to talk up play-off bid

Published on Thursday 21 January 2010 16:54

Northampton Town boss Ian Sampson watched his side make it six unbeaten at Macclesfield last night - but once again shelved talk of a play-off push.

Town made it back-to-back 2-0 wins in 2010 with a deserved triumph at Moss Rose, secured through goals from Luke Guttridge and Adebayo Akinfenwa.

It means the side are now 13th in Coca-Cola League Two and six points off the play-off zone with a home game against Chesterfield next up.

After that they travel to bottom-of-the-league Darlington before rounding out the month with a home fixture against Burton Albion.

But Sampson refused to jump the gun on any top-seven talk.

"When I first took this job on my aim was just to get the team into the top half of the table," he said.

"We're one point off doing that and we've not quite made it yet but if we beat Chesterfield then we will have achieved that.

"Once we're there, then we can start talking about the play-offs.

"We've worked hard to get into the position we're in, we're on a good run and we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. If the players keep performing to the levels they are, then we've got a chance. It's about the team as a unit and not individuals."

Sampson's opposite number Keith Alexander was furious with how easily his side were outclassed by the Cobblers.

And he pulled no punches in a scathing post-match assessment of his players, and in particular how they dealt with Akinfenwa.

"We were very poor," he said. "Northampton are in a decent bit of form but we haven't played well at all.

"For their second goal, we're nowhere near Akinfenwa and he's been scoring goals like that for 20 years!"

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Sampson refuses to talk up play-off bid

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