James Heneghan’s Northampton Town v Yeovil Town preview

Andy Williams' 88th minute goal put Cobblers 1-0 up at Yeovil in December but it wasn't enough to clinch all three points. Pictures: Kirsty Edmonds

Date/time: Saturday, April 27, 3pm kick-off

Venue: PTS Academy Stadium

Forecast: 9C, showers

Outs and doubts: Cobblers: none. Yeovil: Adel Gafaiti, Ryan Seager, Rhys Browne, Gary Warren, Craig Alcock, Carl Dickinson

Betting: Northampton 23/20, draw 23/10, Yeovil 9/4

Form guide: Cobblers LWDDLL, Glovers DLLDLL

Possible line-ups: Northampton (3-5-2): Cornell; Goode, Pierre, Turnbull; Hoskins, Cox, Foley, Pollock, Elsnik; A Williams, Morias. Yeovil (4-4-2): Baxter; Browne, Sowunmi, Mugabi, James; Gray, D’Almeida, Pattison, Abrahams; Duffus, Dobre.

Man in the middle: Anthony Backhouse

Last time out: Yeovil 1 (Gray) Colchester 1 (Eastman); Bury 3 Northampton 1 (Williams)

Most recent meeting: Saturday, December 22, 2018 – Yeovil Town 1 (Arquin) Northampton 1 (Williams)

Record v Yeovil: P14 W4 D6 L4

Opposition view: “At the moment it’s draws all the way (between the bottom three sides) but we’ve got to get a win, firstly for our own sake,” said Glovers caretaker Neale Marmon this week. “I think the performances have got better. We’re looking at ourselves and not worrying about who could play where for Northampton. We’ve got to try and get a result and leapfrog over Macclesfield.”

James Heneghan’s preview: One quick glance at the statistics will tell you all you need to know about the sheer scale of Yeovil Town’s dreadful run of form since they last played the Cobblers.

A 1-1 draw at Huish Park in December, when Andy Williams’ composed 88th minute finish was cancelled out by Yoann Arquin’s thunderous 89th minute volley, left the Glovers 20th in League Two and with 23 points from 21 games, four clear of the drop zone.

A draw and a defeat over Christmas followed and then the next four months have been nothing but abject misery for Glovers supporters, bar the very occasional victory.

Let’s just take a look at those grim statistics.

Since the turn of the year, Yeovil have the fewest points in League Two, the fewest wins, the most defeats, the most goals against and the worst away record of any team.

Thirteen of their past 17 games have ended in defeat and it’s no surprise that manager Darren Way eventually paid for that pitiful form when he lost his job last month, replaced by current caretaker manager Neale Marmon.

But a change of manager has not brought about a change of fortune and a run of nine games without victory means they remain embroiled in a three-way scrap to avoid relegation, level on points with Notts County and two behind Macclesfield Town, going into tomorrow’s penultimate game of the season.

Yeovil will be grateful to the Cobblers for their recent efforts against those other two teams – even if Town failed to beat 10-man County – but they now come to the PTS desperate for all three points ahead of the final round of fixtures next weekend.

The Cobblers saw their play-off hopes ended a long time ago but they’l nonetheless be keen to end their home campaign on a high, particularly given the lack of victories at the PTS this season.

Manager Keith Curle has a fully-fit squad to pick from and whilst it’s always dangerous to second guess the Cobblers boss, his team selection for this game might offer some clues as to who will go and who will stay in the summer.

Prediction: Northampton Town 3 Yeovil Town 2