November was to see a real decline in the season for The Cobblers as some of the good early work was undone by a poor run of form despite progress in the F.A. Cup.
The month began with The Cobblers on the verge of making a push for the top six and, off the back of our first away win of the season at Oldham, sprits were high as Southend came to town. An Adam Barrett header in the second half was enough to end our good run though and we needed to bounce back immediately as we hosted Bristol Rovers the following Tuesday.
But Rovers would also leave Sixfields with a win by the single goal as Rickie Lambert scored the only goal of the game with twenty minutes to go.
Back to back defeats were followed by a trip to League Two high flyers Darlington in the first round of the F.A. Cup. An early goal from Gregg Blundell for the home side was coupled with an injury to skipper Chris Doig and Doig would be out until April with a long term problem. Colin Larkin scored the equaliser to take the tie to a replay.
Another single goal defeat in the league, this time at Crewe, would condemn us to our third straight loss in League One before Andy Kirk and Bradley Johnson secured progress in the cup replay against Darlington. We were drawn against Walsall at home in Round Two.
But before the cup meeting with Walsall, we would play them in the final league game of November. Mark Bradley and Ishmel Demontagnac scored in the second half to make it four defeats without scoring a goal for Stuart Gray’s men as the month ended with us languishing in the lower reaches of the table.
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