Promotion race ‘will go to the wire’ says Northampton Town boss Boothroyd

DAY TO REMEMBER - Adebayo Akinfenwa celebrates scoring his third goal at Accrington earlier in the season

That is the prediction of Cobblers boss Aidy Boothroyd as he surveys the npower League Two promotion picture.

Town go into today’s Sixfields clash with third-from-bottom Accrington Stanley in seventh place.

They are just three points off the top three and the automatic promotion places, and six points behind second-placed Port Vale.

They are also seven points ahead of the sides directly beneath them, Southend United and Fleetwood, and with 10 games to go and 30 points to play for, anything is still possible for the Cobblers.

And Boothroyd is still hopeful that it can be his Town team that gets that crucial winning run going in the final furlong of the campaign.

“We know that the league is very tight and we know that any team that puts a good run together can arguably have a go for those top three places,” said the Cobblers boss.

“If the league remains as unpredictable as it has been, then it is going to go right down to the wire and what we’ve got to try and do is be that consistent team that is predictable and that keeps winning and picking up points.”

Boothroyd also revealed that the team is more or less where he expected it to be at this stage of the season.

“From day one from when I sat down with the players we all agreed that anything other than top 10 this season would be unacceptable,” said the Town boss.

“I said that I expected us to be getting into the play-offs as a minimum with the group of players that I had.

“Obviously expectation levels have rocketed from the supporters, but my expectations from this group are that we’ve got to be the best we can be.

“We had a mediocre start, a reasonable middle and we’ve really just cracked on in the last 10 games but it’s the next 10 games that are the most important.”

Chris Hackett is set to return to the starting line-up for today’s clash with a Stanley side that were swept aside 4-2 by the Cobblers when they met earlier in the season.

Adebayo Akinfenwa as the Town hero that day, scoring a hat-trick, while the other goal was netted by Jake Robinson.

Following today’s home clash with Accrington, the Cobblers are back on the road on Tuesday when they go to Morecambe.