Cobblers hopeful of keeping their loan players for the play-offs

Cobblers are hopeful of being able to call upon the services of their four loan players whenever the League Two play-offs get the green light to go ahead.

In a typical year, Callum Morton, James Olayinka, Lloyd Jones and Scott Wharton would have returned to their parent clubs following the final game of the regular season, originally scheduled to be against Newport County last month, or after the play-offs.

However, all four have spent the last couple of months in limbo - much like the rest of the squad - waiting to find out if and how the season will be completed and whether or not they'll play for Northampton again.

But after last week's announcement that the play-offs are still set to go ahead as normal, Cobblers now face their biggest two or three games of the whole season and will therefore want a strong squad to pick from.

Chairman Kelvin Thomas confirmed in a recent interview that he's 'confident' of retaining the four loan players, and it is understood that Northampton remain in conversation with the various parent clubs but will wait for the play-offs to be ratified before finalising the paperwork.

"We're talking to all the clubs individually and I think loan players will be an interesting focus next season as we get past COVID and get through this crisis from a financial perspective," said Thomas earlier this month.

"The loan players were on the call on Monday and they're all engaged and they all want to play and I think their clubs want them to play.

"All the agreements are different. Some of them have a fixed end date but we're comfortable and confident that all of our loan players will be retained if we can complete the season."

Meanwhile, various clubs in League Two have been announcing their retained lists over the last few days but with their own season not yet over, Town will wait before doing likewise.

"It becomes no different to what happens if you made the play-offs in a normal season," said Thomas. "You tend to announce your retained list after the season has finished but our season still continues.

"Everyone's season is continuing at this point because it hasn't been ratified yet, but once it is ratified, their season will finish and ours will continue and I'll be talking to the players about that again this week.

"We've had very good communication with the players and I think they've said that themselves. We've constantly spoke to both the players and Keith about all of this and that will continue.

"The players are just focused on trying to get to League One because that changes their position anyway."