Curle: Cobblers will be ready for 'odd experience' of playing without fans

It will be a strange experience for the Cobblers when they step out at the PTS Academy Stadium on Thursday evening – but one they are well equipped to deal with, according to manager Keith Curle.

After three months without a match, Cobblers are gearing up for their biggest two games since they were beaten by Walsall, effectively sealing their relegation to League Two, over two years ago.

And if that wasn’t a challenge in itself, their play-off semi-final clash with Cheltenham Town, scheduled for June 18 and 22, will be played behind closed doors and with strict safety protocols in place due to the coronavirus crisis.

The absence of supporters is likely to diminish home advantage – as results in the Bundesliga have proved in recent weeks – but Curle believes his players are equipped to handle the challenge when Cheltenham come to town.

“It’ll be an odd experience and a new experience,” he admitted. “I don’t think any of the other players or managers would have played a competitive game behind closed doors before.

“But we’re familiar with our surroundings. We train at our ground every day and it’s our regular training venue so we’re very aware of the surface and the environment, even though some of the protocols will be different when we get to gameday.

“But the dimensions of the pitch won’t change and we’ve got a style of play that we don’t shy away from and won’t shy away from so it’s all about turning up on Thursday and giving ourselves a good foothold over the two legs.

“It’s going to be completely new and completely different for everybody but we’ve got a squad that embraces challenges and we don’t shy away from challenges.

“It will be a challenge but it’s one we’ll face head-on. Ultimately, it’s a game of football. We know how we play, we know what we want to do and we know the areas that we can cause other teams problems.

“We’ll respect the opposition and we’ll be aware of the potential threats that we think they have but we’re mindful that every team in this division has weaknesses.”

Whilst it wasn’t achieved in the manner they might have liked, reaching the play-offs represents a successful season for the Cobblers.

They finished seventh and on 72.11 points under the EFL’s unweighted points-per-game model, 1.25 points ahead of the unfortunate Port Vale.

“I take it back to when I came into the football club and the starting point of where the club was at back then,” added Curle.

“We identified where we were at and where we needed to get to and what we needed to create on the back of the football club being relegated.

“We were near the bottom of the league and there wasn’t a winning mentality and that’s something you need to create and evolve because it doesn’t just happen.

“We needed to create a winning mentality and an upward curve and the staff at the club bought into that and the players have also all bought into it and that comes from clarity and being brave enough to identify where we were at and where we needed to get to.”