Cardoza: Reaching play-offs is a cash boost for Northampton Town

Town will pocket £40,000 from Sky Sports in broadcast fees for the two legs of the semi-finals, and will be entitled to a further payment if they reach the Wembley final.

Club coffers will also be swelled by a bumper Sixfields gate for the home game and the added revenue an extra fixture on the list brings.

But despite the fresh injection of cash, Cardoza says the emphasis will be on balancing the books during a summer in which 12 players’ contracts at the club expire.

“It (being involved in the play-offs) is massively better financially than going straight up,” he said.

“We get the gate money, the television money and if we get to the final we get a big chunk then too.

“From a financial point of view it’s absolutely the way you want to do it (get promoted).

“You get money that you wouldn’t have otherwise accounted for.

“It’s good news, very good news. The money coming in now is effectively balancing out the season because it has been an expensive season.

“Our gates we budgeted we for are absolutely bang on, but one or two costs have been more than we would have liked them to be.”

The Cobblers have been a league two club since their relegation in 2009, a factor which - combined with the current financial climate - has made dealing with the finances at Sixfields an increasingly arduous task.

Despite taking a huge drop in revenue during those years, Cardoza has financed several high-profile signings, including the summer deals to bring the likes of Chris Hackett and Clive Platt to the club.

Not much will change from a budgetary point of view if Northampton are promoted, with the chairman putting the emphasis on sustainability.

“We took about £800,000 worth of income off the minute we got relegated to league two,” he said.

“It’s difficult to say what it would be worth to us to get promoted this year.

“We would get around £200,000 more from the Football League money and the gates would obviously be a lot more.

“It’s difficult to say how much more but in this environment gates are down across the board.

“This season, because we’ve tried to give Aidy (Boothroyd) everything we can, it has been an expensive season and we’d be looking to try to find the balance again next season, regardless of whether that is in league one or league two.”