So, the halfway point of the season and the guys have tacked around the buoy with the spinnaker up, the wind flapping through the mainsail and the spree in their faces, but will they sink like they did this time last year?
After Tuesday's last ove
r defeat to the Gloucestershire Gladiators in the Twenty20 we are certainly taking on water.
It was Milton Keynes 2008 all over again.
The finishing line is still a way off, but this time the prize is huge and we have to keep it together, the £30 million P20 prize pot so close.
Tonight's game at Taunton is a must-win to keep control of our group.
We won't accept them messing it up this year.
The domestic Twenty20 is a rare occasion in sport where the small clubs can actually compete fairly with the big ones for the big money.
India may well be shifting the Twenty20 Champions League to September next year which would seriously affect the end of the English domestic season, with it meaning the probable loss of two championship matches in the process.
This is a clear move to try and finish off the ICL (57 players have defected from the ICL already this year), but the English T20 is the only game in town now for Northants.
The end of T20 games tend to be anti-climaxes, like those yacht races, and if it wasn't for the klaxon you wouldn't know it was over.
But it was a thriller at the NCG as the Steelbacks bowled brilliantly to try and defend a hopeless 133 against a team that can't even qualify.
But we batted atrociously to put us in that pickle, no real plan or discipline, the Steelbacks unable to score heavily after the power play.
Ian Harvey top-scored with 43, but the support and partnerships were just not there, with the team going from 40 for one to 133 for nine and only the late Johan van der Wath barrage set any sort of score.
There was an array of pathetic shots sure to feature in Harry Hills TV Burp Pathetic Shots Special!
We were scoring three and four an over through overs 12 to 18, and that with all the hitting power we have.
It's not as if the conditions were tough.
There was a reasonable pitch and a quick outfield on offer, a great crowd and the weather to support it.
But the guys are bottling it again, and the peleton is closing fast as Worcestershire and Somerset keep winning.
Maybe the nucleus of this side just can't do it.
The slow bowling was fine, with Nicky Boje excellent at taking three for 28. And Andrew Hall is getting back to form with one for 21.
But coach David Capel is still sticking with Monty Panesar, so talisman David Willey got just one over.
And Lee Daggett and Steven Crook are just not T20 bowlers in any form, and are now costing us games.
Grant Hodnett was able to take the Gladiators to a damaging victory with 60 well thought-out runs, the win managed off the penultimate ball.
The Steelbacks are seriously lacking in that cerebral department.
Tune in to Radio Northampton tonight and start praying guys as the two week break has cost us that critical momentum this crazy game is all about.
