Kevin Nolan pays tribute to Sam Hoskins ahead of testimonial match against Birmingham City

The 32-year-old signed for Cobblers 10 years ago this month and has been with the club ever since, racking up a massive 417 appearances – the third most in the club’s history – and 97 goals. He’s also been part of three promotion-winning teams, including scoring at Wembley in Town’s play-off success in 2020 and then netting the decisive, promotion-clinching goal at Tranmere in 2023.

Hoskins, so often a regular for Cobblers, had to manage a knee issue throughout last season and subsequently missed more games than usual, but he underwent knee surgery at the end of the campaign and comes into 2025/26 looking as fit and as sharp as ever.

"Sam has been a fantastic servant to this club and Saturday is very well deserved,” said Nolan. “We'll all enjoy that moment for Sam and hopefully we can build on Tuesday's performance with another good one and make it a great day.

"He's done fantastically well and it's a credit to him with the shape he's in at this stage of his career because he keeps himself very fit. He worked through a lot last season in terms of managing his knee. We had to manage it early on when we came back for pre-season but he looks good and he's been doing really well with all of the running.

"I think he's feeling really good and now we're coming off them, and not putting them through the mire as much, hopefully we will see the benefits of everything we have done over the last five weeks and they'll be fresh and in a good place and ready to go for the season.”