Cobblers have two incentives to beat Plymouth as torrid season finally reaches an end
Giving fans a long, long overdue victory, coupled with the chance to stop Plymouth’s play-off dream, should be enough incentive for Cobblers to produce a competitive performance at Sixfields on Saturday, believes interim manager Colin Calderwood.
On a club-record 11-game losing run, and with only one victory in 25 league games, Cobblers supporters will be glad to see the back of this calamitous campaign when the full-time whistle blows in Saturday's final game.
Asked what he wants to see on Saturday, Calderwood said: "I want to see a bit of bounce and I want to see a bit of energy. We need to go again in front of our home fans and try and finish the season off with a bit of positivity. Can we score? Can we get the first goal? Can we win the game? We'll try and attack it with an enthusiasm and an enjoyment that should always come with playing football and being a professional sportsman.
"That's what we look for. It'll be three days of work before the close season work starts and that's the normal principles and we'll get a bit of fizz about the players. One or two will need to recover but we'll pick the team on Friday and we'll make sure we're ready because we know exactly what we want to do. We want to be competitive and can we keep Plymouth out of the play-offs? That's an incentive for us and it's also an incentive to try and make the fans happy.”
Plymouth need to beat Cobblers and hope both Luton and Stevenage fail to win to sneak into the top seven.
"There will be an edge to it and that should lift our performance,” Calderwood added. “We don’t want to watch another team celebrate getting a play-off place. The best way to stop that is by beating them and that’s what we’ll try and do.
"It’s a horrible run we’re on but we have to try and get something before the end of the season. Saturday is the last chance to do that. We’re fully aware of our situation but you still turn up, do your job and try your best.”