NTFC Fans Forum April 2025

[00:00:00] Frain again and he’s got it! Gavin was closing in? Oh Gavin has scored! 

Abdul Osman against Brad Jones to put Liverpool outta the cup and Northampton through. Get in there! 

Charles Commins: Hello, I’m Charles Commins and welcome to It’s All Cobbles to me, the podcast for Northampton Town fans. If this is your first time pressing play, let me tell you a little bit about what we do along with myself.

There’s Danny Neil and Chessie, all of us lifelong Cobbler fans, and we share our opinion on everything that goes on, both on and off the pitch. At Northampton Town, we also share interviews with cobbler’s players past and present from time to time too. So if that sounds like something you’d like to listen to, press the follow button [00:01:00] on whichever app you are using to listen to this right now, and you’ll get every episode delivered straight to your device for free.

Now. One of the other things that we get to do is host the fans forum events with the cobblers. And this time we were joined by Kevin Nolan, Colin Calwood, Kelvin Thomas, James Whiting, and Tom Cliff. For the first time we were in the LCS stand and a much larger than expected amount of people came along to take a look around the stand and then ask questions of our panel.

So without making you wait any longer, here is the recording of the event. Oh, and I should warn you that there are a few swear words here or there from a certain Mr. Nolan and that blue lot from down the N get full named a few times. Too terrible. Anyway, enjoy.[00:02:00] 

Thank you very much for coming. It’s so good to see so many of you here. Uh, hope you’ve all had a good look round, uh, the stand. We are of course in the LCS stand, in the east stand lounge where the hospitality, well, the new bit of hospitality takes place. Tom obviously still does his stuff in the west stand on a match date as well.

So there’s a little bit of extra income. Uh, I’d like to just first of all welcome our panel if you like. Uh, we’ve got, we’ll start from left to right show. We’ve got Colin Calwood. Thank you

Kevin. Nolan,

if I skip [00:03:00] the next one out, we’ll leave him to the end and then you can all boo. Is that all right? Yeah. Kelvin Thomas, the chairman.

Tom Cliff, our fans representative to the board,

and James Whiting, our CEO as well. Thank you very much for being here guys. So, as I said earlier, the way that this is gonna work is that this is your opportunity to ask these guys questions. So if you want to ask a question, all you need to do is pop your hand up like you’re in school asking to go to the bathroom.

I will come over to you. I will give the mic in front of you so that you can ask your question. And uh, that’s basically the way that we’ll do it. We’ll go until either nine o’clock or when the questions run out, who would like to get us started. Yes. So, ah, you see, you’re all going, all, [00:04:00] we are all too shy, but there’s always one, which is good.

Here we go. 

Question: Okay. First of all, guys, um, well done on, um, keeping us up, um, really, really brilliant and this stand is, um, yeah. Um, also, um, obviously for most of it’s the first time we’ve been in this stand and it’s, it’s brilliant. It, it’s a different level. You know, I’m, I’m, I’m taken away. To be honest, it to the extent that a load of us wanna hire a box for a game, how much is that

for you, for you, for me Free. I, Kelvin, that’s, I’ll tell you what you, you’re top man. I, I knew, I knew that would be the case. Kevin, um, you’ve come, you’ve come in. We had a lot of, um, problems, you know, injury wise. When you first came into the club, obviously you had us playing in a certain way, you know, you made us, um, better at the back to start with.

And you’re seeing the team improve. Um, obviously you’re not gonna tell us who’s going [00:05:00] to, who’s gonna be leaving or who’s are you gonna bring in? Um, all four lad you brought in, were being brilliant. Um, that shows that you’ve, you’ve, you’ve got, um, the right people you can bring to the club, um, your ambition.

Um, we want to go up another level. Is is it possible,

Kevin Nolan: was that for me or for the boss? No, look, I, look, I was fully aware of what the job entailed when it first come and, or, you know, when it first had. Me interview and the conversations with, with Kelvin and, and sort of his staff and everybody else. And I spoke with James the day before for about 50 minutes on the phone.

I knew exactly where the club was and what was needed and everything else. And I, I wanted, I, I was really up for the challenge. Um, I didn’t realize how many actual injuries we did have, I must admit, and I didn’t think it was that many long term. But yeah, the papered over that quite [00:06:00] well, I must admit. Uh, but look, uh, but what I will say is that look, we, what we wanna do and what the first, the first objective was to make sure that we, you know, we, we got, we were safe.

What was, you know, we were given an opportunity in January to look at players, um, which a lot of the work had been done by the recruitment and by this man. Out by me side as well. Uh, and, and those sort of, uh, you know, asking people who, who he trusted within the game. You know, when you look at like a Ben per who, who comes, who’s never add alone, you know, that he, he was someone who I’d seen on a couple of occasions and I really liked, but you, you sort of take a punt on that, you know, and you think, and it was because of these, he, he was sort of a last minute one, you know, and then when, when that happens to Liam Shaw, you know, he, he sort of then blossoms into, into the play he has.

So, th there’s times when you’ve gotta look af af, look at it and think you gotta, you get a [00:07:00] bit lucky with one. But I thought, yeah, the business, what we were able to do with the support from, from James and, and Kelvin, certainly. Um, what we’re gonna be doing in the summer is, is looking to bring people in of their caliber who are gonna come in and we, we, you know, we we’re gonna be robust enough to be able to go and go again.

And that’s what we’re looking for. And we’re, and we’re gonna give hopefully a team, which is, you’re gonna be proud of. And, and we’re not gonna be sitting in a precarious position as what we was in, in this time next year. Hopefully that’s that ’cause that’s success again. We want to, we want, we want to win the next two games.

And then the success is then to try and get, you know, get safe as quickly as possible next season and see how high we can finish. And we keep building on that. And if you keep build building on that and bringing better players and all, as you can see the work, what’s going on behind the scenes and everything else.

Um. And we’re trying to improve the training ground as well. And all them things which is going on behind the scenes is hopefully it’s just gonna make North Ton town better and sustain what we, what we are as a League one club, but then start trying [00:08:00] to push up that league as much as we possibly can. So that’s the aims of, of myself and obviously of Kelvin because you know, I’ve gotta sort of push him when I can to see if, see if I can have another player or can, can I have another bag of balls?

’cause we’ve lost it. ’cause we’ve lost the load. ’cause ads a dick. Forget to get them. I seen your ads are Oh, your son. You okay?

No, but yeah, so we’re looking forward to hopefully what’s gonna be, it’s gonna be, you know, testing, but I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into it, to, to be honest, to seeing what we want. Me and Colin have had our, our chats, we’ll we’ll be speaking with, with Kelvin and, and James and you know, I. Quite openly of how, how we see what we want going forward.

Um, but what I’m hoping to do is just build a team, um, which is, which is gonna make us, you know, make us better, stronger, uh, and one for you to be proud of. 

Question: One last one, JJ or Kocher, has he got any boys who could possibly come? The club [00:09:00] 

Kevin Nolan: that all of its all a bit too young, I think. You still, yeah. 

Charles Commins: Fabulous.

Thank you very much. Any more? Do you know what? If you’re gonna do this and make me go from one end to, I know I need to lose a bit of a timber, but I mean, this is a joke, lu, come on. Who was it? Sorry, I lost. Yeah. Fabulous. Okay, just go, just gotta remember this is a recording and therefore if I just leave it quiet, you’ll no will know what’s going on.

Question: Firstly, um, well, I just want to say, uh, a massive well done to you, Kelvin, for getting this stand finally done. I mean, I, I remember driving around, you know, I, I’m often around here and, um, I’ve seen nothing here and just an abandoned stand looking, sorry for itself for such a long time. So I just, just say, well done, Kelvin.

I’m, I, I’m, I’m. This is the first time I’ve actually been in this stand, and I can only echo what the previous supporter said. I, I’m, I’m absolutely blown away by how good it actually is. And [00:10:00] it’s, it’s an incredible, it’s an, it’s great to find you stand in here and, and see it fully completed. Um, I, um, I just wanted to ask you, um, Kelvin, um, I know, I know we’ve, you know, staying in League one this year is a massive achievement, I think.

’cause considering the amount of the, the other clubs around us who have, you know, hundreds of times bigger budgets than we, we, we have, um, um, are we looking to, may are, are we looking to have a, a bigger budget next year? And or I’ll,

obviously he’s not a plant.

I know, I’m, I’m not saying we want to be like Birmingham or ex or anything. Don’t worry.

Your f if you, me, that.

Kelvin Thomas: Oh, is that the question? Sorry. Um, listen, we, we’ve always, first of all, thanks for the comments about the, uh, the [00:11:00] stand and that goes, you know, that goes to James and everyone else at the club as much as it goes to us as, as owners and directors, et cetera. It’s been a, it’s been a journey. It’s been a challenge.

It’s been some, there’s been some very challenging moments, but I feel, I’m sitting up here proud and listening to comments. You’re proud of the fact that we’ve kind of said, we’ve done what we said we were gonna do from, from the start, really. And, and there’s a lot of the challenges that came at us weren’t really in our control.

And we forget as well. We had Covid during that time, et cetera, et cetera. So, and you know, it was a stand that was never gonna get built. It was a stand that was never gonna get built to any sort of standard. And I think everyone’s seen the decisions we’ve made at a time where I. You know, we’ve, and then moving on to the football, you know, people seem to forget, well some people seem to forget that, you know, we are funding a football club at the same time as putting all this money into a new stand, which is, you know, not a lot of, not a lot of people are doing that right now.

So we’ve funded and we’ve probably spent, and it was the reason, part [00:12:00] of the reason why we identified that we needed to bring in a Nigel or a Nigel type to, who’s been extremely helpful and very excited about what’s happened this year, um, along with myself and David in terms of owners ownership, in terms of funding.

And the reality is, this year especially, and I think, you know, you look at what we’ve achieved this year with those bigger budgets, and we kind of, we joke about them, we laugh about them, but there’s a reality to this stuff. You know, there’s a reality to, you know, you know, we’re gonna end up losing probably 2 million quid, you know, stock pool.

7 million quid coming out, you know, this sort of thing. Birmingham, who knows what they’re gonna lose, but their budget was probably, they, you know, they paid more money than for Jay up front for them than as a club. We are probably worth, you know, that’s the sort of, that’s what we’ve been competing with this year with a rham.

And you know, we’ve probably competed with, you know, in a typical season, I would say you probably have [00:13:00] maybe one, one squad over 10 million quid, would you say? Maybe one, sometimes none. I think we’ve got four or five this season and that’s a, a, a, a, a massive challenge for us. I think it’ll even itself out a bit next year.

So our challenge now is, you know, making sure that we do support Kevin. Um, and we are, we do find ways of finding. More, or trying to find more, to be more competitive. But there is a reality that is very expensive and that’s why, you know, things like, you know, we talk about the land and we talk about, you know what, I’m sure we’ll get onto that conversation about or what people would like and, but there’s a reality that we’ve gotta try and generate as much money as we can from the land opportunity to fund the football club.

’cause I think we’ve proved that this isn’t a profit making center. You know, just look at our accounts, you know, we ain’t making any money and we ain’t, we’re, we’re not gonna make any money out of that. We’re not gonna make any money out of that. But what we might do is we might be able to. [00:14:00] Afford to, you know, increase the budget a little bit and with, and that’s what we’ve done all along.

We’ve always said that, we’ll, we’re happy to continue to fund as long as we’ve, we’ve got a chance to maybe get some of that back or, or pay for the stand that we’ve done, you know, as, as with anything, money doesn’t, you know, it is just not there. And, and having Nigel come along and having David as supportive as everyone is, and then maybe, you know, maybe you look at another Nigel or that type of, that type of thing to.

To compete ’cause we are competing now with, with some serious money. That’s the reality of it, is, you know, the top of this division, especially this year, and then, you know, the average loss in the championship, what, 20 million quid or something like that. You know, we’re not, we’re not talking, you know, a 500 grand year or a million quid year or 2 million quid.

We’re talking about a lot of money. And, um, so we’ve gotta make sure that we try and, you know, build and build and build and, and doing things right. And, and, and that’s what we try and do. And we’ve gotta make sure we get the culture right because it’s not all about [00:15:00] money. Poor old Bristol Rovers are, you know, are,

you know, could be, could be going down this year with, with, with, with a significantly higher budget than ours. But one thing I will say about us compared to them, I think our culture’s better. I think our culture’s, we’ve got our culture right? I think we, we, in terms of what we’ve got in within the club and how we deal with things and how we operate, I think it’s a, I think that’s what, and that’s some that helps.

It’s not just about money. A lot of it is, but it’s not just about that. So, so, and, and, and identifying with Kevin, and you look at January. You know, we have to be proud of what we did in January. And yeah, we spent a little bit more on some of the players and you know, and I know everyone will say cheap loans.

They’re not, there’s no such thing as a cheap loan anymore. It just doesn’t happen like it used to. And we’ve talked about that. But with Colin and [00:16:00] Kevin, I think we’ve got an opportunity to really identify some players that are gonna help. So, you know, yes, we will be looking to, you know, do what we can to increase the budget or, and, and, and what, you know, and, and, and build the club.

Continue to build the club. But we’ve never said we’re gonna be, you know, we’re not Tom Brady, we’re not, you know, we’re not Tom Brady. We’re not Ryan Reynolds, but hopefully we can continue to do what we, what we do. 

Charles Commins: Fabulous. Who had 15 minutes for the first mention of Bristol Rovers? The name

Question: I just started to ask Mr. Nolan, in terms of the style of play, which we’ve seen so far since you’ve been here, are you having, is that gonna be the way we’re gonna be playing for the ref, for your, well, for the next season? I just wondered. I’m fine with that. I just wanted that. Yeah. No, 

Kevin Nolan: no. Look, I, I, you know, we’ve had to adapt.

If I, if I’m honest, you know, I wanted to come in and I wanted to play with a back fall. I wanted to, I think you’re seen that in the early days. Uh, but then losing John, we sort [00:17:00] of had to bring Max D and, you know, you sort of got center off. Uh, we, we were packed with in, in that place, but they couldn’t, I couldn’t sort a.

Build a, a, a partnership with, because we’d lost John, who, who was sort of you, you, you sort of stall wealth of the defenders and you and your captain. So we, we went to a back three and I had to adapt and we had to adapt, um, quite quickly. And I thought we did and we adapted it to, to what I wanted. But there’s layers to be put on.

I, I thought talked about it early, early on in, in shows me tenure as the manager is that there’s layers to be built on and how I wanna play and what I want to do. And I think you’re seen that, you know, as the, the out hours we’ve gone on, the lads have got a bit more confident with the ball. I want them to sort of keep hold of the ball a lot more and not sure to go back to front.

Um, but you, what you get when you’ve got lad who sorted in, in the position, what, what they’re in and they’re a bit nervous about doing things. So when you’re actually banging and drum about something, they actually take it to the actual, you know. [00:18:00] Letter of the law instead of sort of what I, I want them to play with freedom.

I want my players to, to be happy and to be, to, to be able to express themselves. So that’s what we’ll be looking for next year. You know, I, I’ll be expecting that, you know, well, I want to get our sort of possession base up a bit more than what we have been, as well as being a lot stronger. I, I don’t think we’ve, we’ve, we’ve got enough clean sheets for my liking, uh, so I wanna be stronger at the back.

Um, and that comes down to what we do in the summer. You know, we, and in the recruitment guide that we, we keep. Who we, who we, who we let go from the club and also what we do off the field because we’ve got, you know, we’ve got, uh, we’ve got a, a, a structure at, at the training ground, which, you know, I’m, I’m speaking to Kelvin about, was trying to, to, to help that, you know, and, and you know, he’s been very supportive in that, in them discussions as well.

So I knew what I was coming into. So it was never about me getting a budget this year and then more next year than that. I wanted to, I wanted to grow with the club, and I think we can do that, that, that’s what I’ve come here for, because I, I feel that it’s solid. You look out the, the way he, [00:19:00] you know, what they’re doing and, you know, Kelvin and all, all his.

You know, the directors and, and James all the work, what they’re doing off the field is, is excellent. And the people, what they’re getting in, in behind. So I feel we can still get it better on the playing side. And I, and that’s what I’m here to do with, with me and him are here to do. And that’s why I brought Cole with, with me because I, I work with Cole and he was, you know, although he’ll probably forget, I call him the Menger Dave every now and then because he, he just forgets all the time so I can say it now.

Um, ’cause he always asks the same question the next day and go, we haven’t spoke about this, so, but it always reminds me, so it’s good. But yeah, he, he, he, um, he, yeah, I, I brought him in because I knew how, how, how good of a coach he was. And, and I love working with him in his sessions and everything else.

And, and he made me a better player. So that’s why, you know, that’s why I, I feel that we’ve got something which is, is gonna brew and, and, and we can, and we can work on and we can get better at. Uh, so I’m really looking forward to. What’s gonna be, you know, it’s gonna be tough. People, you know, it’s, it, [00:20:00] it is what it is.

Uh, you know, I, I knew exactly what I was getting in info. You know, we’ve gotta get players in, we’ve gotta sort out the preseason. We’ve, you know, we’ve been, been lucky enough to get a week away in, in Spain, which is great. You know, when you sort of bring, bring that into it, you know, not many clubs get, get to go abroad in, in, in your pre-season.

And then, you know, sort of getting them games in and in and around. So yeah, look, we are in, we’re in good shape, uh, at the minute, and I’m looking forward to hopefully what’s gonna be a, a good pre-season for, for us to get a, a good start in and some good players. Yeah. 

Charles Commins: Fabulous. We’ve got some more questions.

Can I just quickly ask a follow up on that please, Kev? Just from my point of view, you talk about wanting to get the, the possession up in terms of the percentage. I presume you’re talking about, obviously we, we’ve seen a lot of teams come and pass out from the back that we’ve then exploited that as of their weakness.

What, what’s your feeling on us doing that?

Kevin Nolan: Well, first and foremost, you’ve gotta have players who can play the play, you know, play out from [00:21:00] the back and you’ve got, you know, you’re seen on, on Saturday how we exploited. You’re seen how we’ve done it to Birmingham. We, we’ve got, you know, 5 million pound players in there back forward and how we exploited them and the goalkeeper and everything else.

So you’ve gotta have the right mentality and know when to do it. Look, I’m not against it, you know, I think you’ve seen, there’s been a couple of times now because of, of how we our Be or Be or Tan wanted them to kick it. They go and put the number nine on them. So I, I’m, you know, wanting our, one of our lads to step out and then we, we play and we start the progression from, you know, a more higher position.

But with, with the center half on the ball. And again, it just comes with confidence. So if you’re in that world where you sort of, where we’ve been in that sort of. I’m in an arm stage where we, you, you don’t quite know, but what the belief is around it. And you, you out outside, you’re going, yeah, we’re gonna stay up, we’re gonna stay up.

Sometimes though, as a player you’re thinking, oh shit, but if I make a mistake, we could go down. So you, you, you get to that then point to apologize for me, language to the kids. Um, um, but yeah, so that, [00:22:00] that’s, that’s why, you know, and I think you’ve gotta sort of give them the confidence to do it and you only get that confidence by working hard on the training ground.

And then obviously when you produce results and when we produce results that you’ll see, there’ll be a sort of a confidence with the lads on Saturday now and, and next week we, we, you know, the shackles off and, and, and, and there’ll be a lotof for you. So hopefully you’ll see them. What I’ve done on the possession based side as well as what we’ve done on the outer possession stuff.

Fab. 

Charles Commins: Thanks Kevin. They were here. 

Question: Uh, I make no apologize in by repeating the Thank you Kelvin. Uh, after 60 years coming, supporting this club, the progression you consistently you’ve done is so appreciated by so many people. Uh, and thank you. And I also wanted to say the strength you’ve got in the management team, but also, uh, the management off the field in the offices, uh, they are so passionate and they’re so professional, uh, again, is, uh, appreciated.

Uh, the question to [00:23:00] yourself is that, have you had, or are you prepared to have any discussions to broaden the base of the ownership of the club so it’s not, you know, yourself and David and all the time? 

Kelvin Thomas: Uh, yeah. Um, we, we, we have and, and we will have those discussions. Um, it’s well, bringing Nigel in is as you know, as is part of that progression and there’s no real plan to that progression apart from.

You know, oh my, oh my. It’s 2 million quid a year that, you know, that’s, we have to be having those sorts and those discussions, of course, because it is 2 million and, you know, 2 million quid a year in football terms is, is, is actually not that much anymore. That’s the scary thing about this. And you looking at it and look at even poor Nigel, you know, in, in, in the sense of when Nigel, like I always say to him, he had some bad luck because, you know, Nigel came in and he was very excited about coming in and we had an idea of what it might cost, but then all of a sudden Birmingham wrecked some [00:24:00] Stockport, all these teams came in.

’cause he came in at that point of just the end of last, the end of last season and where it looked like some of these teams, all of a sudden he’s got like, you know, five or six, you know, 10 million plus budgets in coming in and you’re looking at it going, oh, it might cost 2 million quid this year. So. In fairness, yes, we are having those discussions and I really, I, I think it’s important to note, and I appreciate the thanks, but you know, as I’ve said, many a time, I’ll always include James and everyone, you know, in, in, in, in the world, done because, you know, I know there are some people that think I sit there with a joystick and to control everything that goes on.

I really don’t, you know, and some of the times, I don’t even know half the things that go on, which is, which is probably a good thing. Um, but, but you know, James and the staff have, uh, just work and staff, volunteers, part-time staff stewards, you know, everyone that’s involved in, in, in the football club.

Again, it’s a little bit about, and I don’t hate using the word culture, but it’s about what we do. It’s what, who we [00:25:00] are. We’re a hardworking football club and, you know, and everyone’s trying to pull in the, the same direction. So that’s important. So, and we need to, and we have to be careful and, and you do have to be careful because.

You know, you can’t just bring anyone in in terms of ownership. You know, Nigel was a, was was a football fan, had had a lot of money, um, which is helpful. Um. And was willing to, to, to invest. We call, we, we liked as owners, we do like to still call it investment. You know, it’s, it’s a, it’s a silly comment, really, but was willing to, to part with some of his money to, to help improve the football club.

So, and that was good. And he’s, you know, he’s, he’s a really nice fella and, and he’s, it’s worked really well and he wasn’t, he didn’t really come into it and needed to, he didn’t need to be to know everything. You know, the due diligence that Nigel did was, was minimal. And, and because he trusted us and he trusted the football club, and he, he’d done a bit of due diligence in asking some people about us, [00:26:00] and he trusted we were gonna look after, you know, he was, he was gonna have a part to play and he really has.

And the same as, you know, David is very much behind the scenes. I’m just in the forefront because it’s just the way it is. But David has been exceptionally, you know, supportive and, and just, you know, things like Nigel’s the same and David and myself. You know, don’t charge interest on our loans. Ryan Reynolds charged interest on his loans and got it all paid back.

You know, so, you know, that’s, that, that’s, that’s a big thing. And so credit to those guys as well about, you know, being supportive. So going back to the original question, ’cause I do like to go on, um, the, the, um, the, uh, but obviously not as much as Kevin just then, but, but, uh, something you learn. But, but, uh, yeah, we’ll have conversations for sure.

’cause I think it’s important because we need to keep up as well. So, so those conversations will happen and they’re natural. It’s not. You know, they’re natural part of the, the, the, the evolution of the football club. But again, I don’t [00:27:00] want to go back to Bristol, but it’s a really good example of, of a, of an ownership change that happened over a period of time recently.

And, and Carlisle and I, and I really, I know that Carlisle owners and, and they’ve put their heart and soul, but sometimes it doesn’t work, you know, and, and, and you know, they’re looking at a second relegation in Carlisle, and we would never wish that on Bristol. But, but, but, but, but we, you have to be careful who you bring in.

You have to, you have to bring the right people in as well. 

Charles Commins: Can I just remind you that this will be 

Kelvin Thomas: going out on the internet?

Question: Okay. Yeah. Uh, just congratulations again. Obviously everyone’s saying the same thing in the room, so, you know, I’m gonna skip straight to the chase, uh, Mr. Nolan and Mr. Cold Wood, uh, obviously the short time you’ve been here, Kev, uh, what has been the most standout point of view so far this season? I know there’s two games left, but we’re [00:28:00] only really looking for one answer here.

The most standout point of the season so far. Come on. 

Kevin Nolan: Well, it was a couple of weeks ago. Was it the four? No. Yeah, it was a special day. Uh, I thought I was very confident going into it, you know, with, with the way Peter played and our auto possession stuff’s been really good this season, and I thought if we got it right.

And that’s why we changed the team round a bit to, to sort of, because we thought we could hit them in moments, uh, because they’ve got some real good players as you see in the week after when they, they go and beat Bit and Birmingham Wembley. But yeah, I was really pleased with that, with that performance and I thought the lads, you know, that they’re the days when, and, and I said it just before they went out, I said, these are the days where really you don’t have to speak to the lads ’cause they’re all up for it, they’re all confident, they all want to go out, they all wanna be part of it.

So everybody goes out and with a bit of a swagger anyway, you know. And uh, yeah, when we, when we obviously, um, we, we, we got, we were three in a upper half time. It was brilliant. And then it was the challenge of then going out and then doing it again. And, and I thought we did, you know, I thought we were [00:29:00] really unlucky only to, to get the one goal in the second half.

And, uh, it would’ve been nice to get a couple more and, you know, get that goal difference down. Uh, I’m always on about that and clean sheets. So, yeah. Um, very special moments, uh, in my career ear so far. And yeah, looking for more moments like that. Cole. 

Colin Calderwood: Yeah, obviously p uh, Peterborough is the standout moment, but, um, I think our performance against Birmingham and, and Aida actually say our performance against Stockport was, I, I, I really enjoyed that, but the, the Peterborough one stands out and I said in Samson about 40 minutes.

And it’s, um, it’s almost if you took our preparation and what our thoughts in our head were, the way we would, um, the game would go, and how we, how we trained that week into that game, it, it just, everything fell into place. So, um, I forget the manager’s name. I, I forget a lot of things. Oh, it’s Kevin. Yeah.

Yeah. [00:30:00] Uh, uh,

but, but the manager is, um, is a very positive personality and. He, he doesn’t, since I’ve, since I first knew him at Newcastle in that those days, um, no opposition frightens him. And when we went to Bolton, uh, we walked down, uh, the corridor in the thing and that there was, um, I think it was against real Madrid.

There’s a picture in the corridor and it’s him celebrating a goal against Real Madrid. And I’m thinking, well, Northampton against Bolton, that’s not even in the same equation. And that, that there’s a big difference between Bolton and Real Madrid, but not at that time and not in his head. And I think he’s brought that personality to bear on the players.

We’ve definitely improved in getting players out on the training pitch for, uh, a longer period of time. And our work is really through pre-season, there’ll be a, a [00:31:00] bigger foundation for a greater number of players and we hope that will reap a benefit towards the end. Um. I’m sounding like Kelvin here, but the Peter butter day was good for all sorts of tactical coaching and personal reasons.

Question: Two, what’s worse?

Charles Commins: First of all, I’d like to apologize for all the swearing in that P words. What are you doing? How dare say that word here? Who was this? 

Question: I’d also like to echo the, thanks again. Whatever it’s been saying, I think go through the whole club really with the hard work you do. So thank you again. For me, this is probably a question for, for Colin.

I think it’s a, regarding recruitment, so I think a couple years ago we sort of changed there sort of status, how we sort of went, recruitment more, bit more data, and I think teams like Brentford seem to be really heavily evolved in data. I’m just interested sort of how we go about our recruitment if it’s changed now since Kevin’s joined.

Um. So as obviously we haven’t got the, like you said, we haven’t got the biggest [00:32:00] budget, but obviously it’s about getting the right personalities in. But do you do stats in quite a big way in how you identify people? Um, first to sort of think that might be a plan for us, I dunno. 

Colin Calderwood: Yeah, we do. And uh, Alex Lattimer, who’s head of recruitment eras where there is, we invest in some sort of data information.

And again, the manager is with his background, he’s really, he’s always been big on stats whenever we were together as a player and I was in charge of, instead of him shouting at me. Um, but we used it when Louis Perry came, it was, we hadn’t actually seen him. We’d seen him in video footage. And we asked about an, uh, one player and we were given Louie’s name and we looked at it through the data system and he came up really high on the profile that we were looking for at that time.

So, um, as Kev said, sometimes you take a little bit of a chance and, uh, we did on that occasion, uh, it was quite a profitable one in terms of what, uh, Louie gave back to the club [00:33:00] over a period of 18 months, probably two and a half years. So that side of it, we always, we’ll use that a little bit awry, has always got to be.

Uh, and our experience has got to be a judgment on players. So going, going to watch ’em and having the scouting system, five, six scouts around the country now, who would feed back information to Alex and sort of refine a list a little bit. When the manager changes, then the list may change and the profile may change.

And we’ll, we have to be aware of that. Uh, and since I’ve been back, enjoy that side of it. Enjoy. So I. Viewing players and, and thinking eventually further down the line, they, they’ll be quite good. And it, it takes, takes quite a bit of work. It takes a, a leap of faith on occasions and the historical stuff with, uh, Derek Costello and Terry Taylor.

We were very high on the list two years ago. One wouldn’t come and one couldn’t come. And we’ll have that, we’ll have that [00:34:00] scenario this summer, but, we’ll, we’ll move on to the next one. And again, that’ll go back. There’ll be no problems in terms of someone getting injured. We’ll miss out on a player. The personality of the leader.

I’ll make us, uh, move forward and, and work with whoever we bring in. 

Charles Commins: Fabulous. I’m gonna come over this way ’cause I’m aware that I’ve been over there for ages. Let’s come over here and if I can squeeze through this gap. Thank you. 

Question: Uh, again, just thanks to everybody on the panel really for the, the season we’ve had for getting the stand open.

Thanks for the Peterborough moment as well. Um, two things. Firstly, Kevin, who does it better, yourself or Aaron?

Kevin Nolan: To, to be honest, I actually didn’t see him do it live. I, oh, ’cause I was celebrating at the top of the stand obviously. ’cause I was on, I wasn’t on the side. But yeah, he obviously knew he was gonna do it. Uh, and it was only when I later got home and all my mates who, who had gone [00:35:00] out and with, with the family and he said, oh, did you see that MacGowan done?

You, you celebration? I went, no, and he added up on, so we added up on the tele and everything else. So yeah, the fabulous moment on, on Monday with, with friends and family, a couple of drinks in the local and everything else. So it, that was the first time of seeing it. He actually done it quite well, if I’m honest.

He actually done it quite well. Um, but you don’t half look an idiot doing it, don’t you? Honest.

Question: And the other point as well, it’s no secret you are gonna have some great contacts in the game. Are you gonna be looking to utilize some of them over the summer to try and bring in some really top players? 

Kevin Nolan: Yeah, that’s, that’s already, that’s already started, mate. You know, we’ve touched base with all, all the people in the, in the right areas.

As, as you know, Cole’s just said there, Alex is the recruit recruiter. We’ve, we’ve spoke to him about players and he’s come in and he’s, he’s sort got the ball rolling, give us a few names, you know, all the ones who are gonna be able to contract all our, that do out to contract what we’re looking for for next year.

We’ve sought to [00:36:00] give him, well, me and call, put something together what we, what we’re looking for. So it gives them an opportunity to go out and bring the best ones. But yeah, we’ve spoke, you know, I spoke with everybody, I’ve spoke with Westham, Newcastle, we’ve spoke with, we’ve been into Forest a couple of times, called you Gold Coast.

Obviously got contacts in Scotland. That’s why it’s so, so good having someone a lot older than you, you know, ’cause you’ll have more contacts than you.

So, so he, he’s got a wide, the range of contacts and me, and so he can, he can ring them people up in Scotland, he can understand him there, you know, uh, and then, and then you’re obviously, and then obviously all the, all the people who are all in them positions. You know, I, I talked to him, you know, we’ve touch base with, with, with a lot, um, man United, everybody.

So, yeah, we, and, and what, what, what happens is that when, when you have, you know, a few lads on loan and they, and they go back and people can see that good loans have gone and, and the people have gone back, back better, you become a, a real, you know, marketable club for that. That was, that was our aim to get people who, when they [00:37:00] go back to the clubs, they’ve, they’ve gotta be better, better for having the loan.

And, and we’re glad to say that, you know, we’ve had only had positive feedback since that, so it’s been really good. Yeah. And I’m, and as I said, we’re just looking forward now to the next step. 

Charles Commins: Fabulous. I’ve made my way to the bar just so that you know where I am. Thank 

Question: you very much. Um, yeah, likewise. I’m gonna echo the stands.

You know, we’re going into our third season now, so we’re probably borderline becoming an established league one side, which is something that I’ve not been able to, to say. Well, none of us have been able to say for quite some time. So thank you for all of you on that. Um, one of the best abilities they say is availability.

And that has been a massive issue for a number of our players over the last few years. Seems to be a massive issue across the board, seemingly in football, long-term injuries. So we have so many people out of contract in the summer. How as recruitment team and manager due balance, the quality versus quantity kind of elements when it comes to building, uh, a side.

And then also when you look at the players that we brought in, the, the quality’s been excellent. You know, Terry Taylor’s been unbelievable. Dar Castello, I’m not gonna name them all, but. [00:38:00] They’re all on loan. Well, of the majority of people that we brought in are on loan. So for us, trying to build a side, if yourself build, decide moving forward, how do you balance bringing in people on a temporary basis that are high quality versus being, bringing in people on a permanent basis, but perhaps, you know, we, we then don’t have to return.

Kevin Nolan: Yeah. I mean, good question, but I, I want, I want to, you know, you wanna have a core of a squad, which, you know, sort of a team who, who sort of build the culture, you know. We, we, you know, the bosses spoke about the culture quite a bit. And, and that’s what I, I, I created as a, as a captain, uh, in dressing rooms is the culture.

You have to be right. Everyone had to be at it. You’d have to be, and that’s what I’m as a manager, uh, you know, I want the culture to be where, where you come to work and it’s, it, it’s work. You work and work and day. Um, what I’ve tried to build is trying to get, build a robustness. And what you look for, you look for when you, when you’re sort of looking in the recruitment level, we, we don’t just look at what they do on the field.

It’s what, you know, what’s, what’s the history off the field? Have the had major, major injuries of the, had, you know, [00:39:00] big injuries? Why haven’t he played so many times? Or, you know, why is the appearances so low? You, you, but there’s always different answers. But you’ve just gotta do that digging and deep. And then you, and then the ultimate question is, are they a fucking good lad?

You know what I mean? And that’s the, that’s the good, you know, and, and, and if it comes back that he’s not, he won’t be signing for us, you know? So even he can be the best player in the world, but if he’s not a good lad, he ain’t, he ain’t come in here. Uh, not, not under my watch anyway. Um, again, apologies for that language.

That Cole, do you wanna add to that? 

Colin Calderwood: Yeah, I th I think, um, if we think of ourselves as a sandwich, we are the bread. So, uh, I think, we’ll, we’ll always be a club. And a Premiership Club who I spoke to this afternoon Act actually thought we were, uh, the Midlands equivalent of what exit will do, develop young talent, have people on loan and send them back better players.

And I think that’s, that’s a credit to what’s happened, um, not just in [00:40:00] the, uh, in six months, but over a, a period of time at Northampton all the way back to Kyle Walker, et cetera, et cetera. So there’s, there’s been lots of occasions and lots of positive loans for younger players from, uh, premiership clubs.

But the advantage of playing league football is your development as a young player will increase rapidly because the, the environment and the consequence is so different to being a, a premiership or a high level championship club and not even being in the same building as the first team. And so, as Kev said, the core of the group, the core of the dressing room and, uh, is, is very, very important.

And the controllers in the dressing room. The leaders like an arm, Mago and John Guthrie are hugely important. The, the longevity of a Sam Hoskins is hugely important to myself and Kev and, uh, how well the club’s done recently. I must admit, I think they’re strong, strong candidates. And Ya [00:41:00] in Mi, Mitch Pennock, I think that recruitment period when Martin Foyle was here, that it worked really well for us that the one good thing outta Covid was English players, came back from the Scottish premiership and landed really well at Northampton Town for a period of time, and they’ve been a very important cornerstone for the club over the past three, four seasons.

Going back to the sandwich situation. Yeah. Yeah. Costello Salmon. Perry Cheese and Terry Taylor is just mustard or something.

Charles Commins: Anyone got a question? There’s one there. Thank 

Question: you very much. So first of all, I think it’s worth a mention just for someone that we’ve not mentioned yet, but John, for the work that he did for this club for a number of years and, uh, personally the, [00:42:00] the timing of, of when he left. I think we all know some of the reasons behind it, and we all know how difficult things were, but timing wise, you know, even.

The win against Peter Brahe. I think that came from, I, you know, honestly, I don’t think we’d have won if we’d have in the rut that we were in that kind of fresh start. I think that that worked. And then of course, allowing a new manager to come in for January. We’ve spoke about the, the players that we, we brought in and they were pivotal.

We don’t bring those lads in. We’re not sitting here the, the way we are today. And so I guess my, you know, just mention for John, but then the, the question on that for me, we’ve, we’ve mentioned the loan knees, we’ve mentioned the likes of Mr. Guthrie, Mr. Pinna, a lot of players out of contract. Well, kind of nervous that there could be massive turnover.

And I think there’s a, a basis there, but it’s a thin basis of, of contracted players. So the, the question is, and I know we’re not gonna get straight answers if it’s, it’s perhaps more of a, a request, is that we, we don’t, I don’t think we want to lose the, the core of that [00:43:00] group. Colin’s just, just mentioned it, so just thoughts on yeah, those, some of those kind of permanent players, but also those loanee, are we, are we gonna be.

You know, asking the, the question. ’cause all of those, yeah, look, it’s 

Kevin Nolan: a fair question, but, you know, I’ve, I’ve got a, I’ve got a job to do and they’re, they’re the lad to, you know, the, there’s the reason why sometimes they’re out a contract because of, because they’ve, they’ve let the contracts run down and we’ve gotta see it.

Now we, we’ve gotta make sure that what I’ve seen, that I, I, I now believe that they, they’re here now to kick the club on again. You know, I, I’ve gotta, I’ve gotta, I’ve gotta see that. I’ve gotta see that the fact that do the train every day are, are they able to sustain a Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, all them little things.

What you’ve gotta ask yourself and, and what, what I’ve found since I’ve come into the club, there’s not many players who can go Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday. That’s why there’s been a lot of turnaround, and especially in the defenders as you’re seeing, but, you know, the likes of a Miss Pinna who’s been, you know, a real good asset to the club over the last two or three years.

Um, you, he’s, he’s, he’s a. [00:44:00] Conversation where we, we go, we all know he’s a good lad. We all know he turns out every week, he trains well every day. So, you know, but you know, he, he’s not from Northampton and his wife’s not from, from Northampton. So there’s always them, them other determined things where he goes, he might have an offer which is closer to his own, where he wants to go back.

So you, these are all things what we have to weigh up and we have to look out and, and speak to him because if you’re sort of offering him something he, he takes in and then he becomes an un unhappy, un unhappy mitch pin, like, you might not be great for the dressing room then. So they’re all things which in conversations what we’ve gotta be, we’ve gotta be had with the lads.

So, and which we, which we’ll, and look, we, we, we might get some wrong in your eyes, but we are, we’ll try and make the best decisions, which we feel is gonna make sure that we, we get to, well, we start getting to a better level and next level and, and, and breaking, you know, um, I’m not being in this situation this time next year, you know, we we’re, we’re in a much safer position and we’re looking up and trying to even push, you know, to get into the top half really.

Colin Calderwood: Yeah, I, I think on the, the, the John situation, man, uh, [00:45:00] success for us will always be to begin with, to retain League one status. And we shouldn’t get too carried away, but our ambition should be well beyond that and it will be. And so credit to John for keeping the club, uh, getting promoted, staying in the division, and, and then having his own reasons to eventually leave.

And I don’t think there’ll be too, there’ll be no support or forget that period of time. It’s been more than successful time and John was a huge, huge part of that. Uh, the player situation is, is always slightly difficult. We, we would always like to take the best player, but we, if, if we’re entirely honest, we probably get toed down more than, uh, I feel like an ugly girlfriend.

I get rejected quite a bit and uh,

and um, and fortunately that’s not reflection on you as [00:46:00] supporters, but we, we do get rejected quite a bit. Uh, but we’ll try and we put our best foot forward in lots of occasions and we try and use successes of the loans that we’ve had and people’s, uh, improvement as a player. And that’s where the quality of the coach, the, uh, and the management and, and the how stable the club is behind the scene helps.

So, as I said before, there’s lots of people higher up the, the tree look at us and think we do a, a very not fairly good job, a very good job in lots and lots of ways. So, um, establish yourself in League One. Be very competitive. Do what Stevenage have done this year and be mid table. Why can’t we be late in Orient, be in the edge of the playoffs?

I don’t think they’re particularly so much better than us. And, and unfortunately Peterborough are a real good example of what you can do. You know, we’ve got, we’ve gotta applaud them in lots of ways, how they go about it. They’ve done exceptionally well and we’ll always love to beat them [00:47:00] and they’ll always be our biggest rivals, but just accept that it’s just part of the competition that they, of our environment, and of our workplace.

Charles Commins: Lovely. That’s great. I like that kind of question straight at it. See what, how they answer it. Straight battle or not like it. 

Question: I’m sure you probably know, Kevin, that in 19 96, 97, we went to Wembley with 40 odd thousand fans. And the one thing I think everyone here remembers are the Cup games against the bigger teams and the glory days, and occasionally not the glory days.

And in recent years we haven’t really prioritized Cup games apart from the humiliation of this year. And I just think we would like. If we’re gonna become a stable League one club, which I’m sure we are at least, can we have some emphasis on Cup Games because it’s the glory of the cups. Even if it’s like Peterborough going to Wembley, they’re the games that we’re gonna remember in 20 or 30 years rather than just, you know, in Neil nil against Port Vale.

So can you, I mean, I, [00:48:00] I watched your interview on telly and um, you talked about Bolton and the Cup Games there as well. So can you try and prioritize a few Cup games for us? 

Charles Commins: I seem to remember a cup game at Bolton that Kevin was playing him. I come on sword, by the way. Uns score the 

Kevin Nolan: thing. So, um, well, just to go back, uh, yeah, look, obviously competitions and when we, when we’re in it, I want, I want to be competitive.

The league always take priority. There’s no, there’s, there’s no, there’s no thing with that. But what I will say is that what, when I was at county, you know, we, we, we, we don’t quite well, we, we beat, um. We got to the fifth round, I think we, we, and then just lost out eight one to Swanee in. But that, that, that was after a one all draw that medal lane as well.

So it was, it was a replay, which, uh, thankfully now have gone. So if you do manage to get the big teams or the big clubs and [00:49:00] you get them out here in six fields, there’ll be days where, yeah. You know, I, I remember that day we, we could have actually beat Swaney who were in the Premier league at the time.

We beat Bristol R four two in the line before. So, yeah, I, I actually didn’t even get to think about that then. That’s good. But yeah, it’s even better now. Um, yeah. So, you know, for them to, yeah, to answer your question, you know, I want have them special days as a managers too. I’ve had them as a player, so I want, I wanna be having them as a manager and sharing them moments with, with the, with the coaching staff and, and also with, you know, with the, with the owners, you know?

’cause I can always remember, you know, after we beat Brentford away, we beat them one nil. They were in the championship at the time. Um, uh, and you know, I can remember, you know, that how delighted the chairman was and everything else. And also sometimes it helps when you, you go into January and you’re asking for a couple more players because they’ve got a bit more in the budget.

There we go. 

Kelvin Thomas: There’s the truth is, there’s a, there’s a reality to that. [00:50:00] And, uh. You know, from a club perspective, we, we, we certainly prioritize Cup games, um, because it has a, has a big impact in the, in the finances. You know, you go back to when we played Darby and the Cup, that was worth a decent amount of money for the football club and get the, get the replaying man United in our, in our, in our second season, et cetera.

So it is one of the things that I have mentioned to Kevin that would be nice if we win a cup game here and there. 

Question: I will be coming back over that way 

Charles Commins: in a second, 

Question: but I’ve got one here. A question for James. Um, in terms of recruitment and the summer, once players have been identified or, uh. The situation with the existing players has been sorted.

How much do you enjoy the next two or three months in terms of negotiating with, uh, with new players, potentially new players? 

James Whiting: Uh, enjoy. That’s, uh, yeah. I’m not, I’m not sure that’d be the word I’d use, but it’s uh, it’s an interesting period to [00:51:00] summer, isn’t it? It’s, um, you know, you’ll scramble around from speculation of who we’re signing and all I can say to you is there’ll be a lot of hard work goes on from, from these guys on the end.

And, you know, we have a lot of really good conversations identifying players targets. And I think Colin said it’s not, uh, it’s not a straight line to get the squad you want. There’ll be some players unfortunately, you know, we don’t quite get, and you know, sometimes we have to be honest that in League one, you know, in league two, sometimes it was easier to attract players.

’cause we’re all seen as a, a club at the top of that division. Um, the recruitment process can take a little longer. I think there was some concerns last year that we were maybe not getting the players in early in the window. And um, you know, we, we get that as well. But it, you have to be patient. We have to be patient to get the players we want and.

And take our time to build that squad, working with, with Colin and, and Kevin to get what we think is gonna be a really competitive squad with all the ingredients in terms of the personalities, the robustness, um, the [00:52:00] desire to push the club forward. So, um, look, it’s, it is an interesting time. There’s a lot of hard work goes on from a lot of people.

Um, these guys, Alex Lama, head of recruitment, myself, Nick, the club secretary, the board, um, looking at all decisions. So, um, it’s interesting, every deal is different. Some deals happen really smoothly, other deals don’t. Some deals take months, some take days. Um, it’s an interesting period. But, um, you know, we’re, we’re hoping for a real positive summer.

You know, we’re in a great position now. We know where we are. League One, we’re at a really strong end to the season. Which I think we’ve got the new stand open. So I think the club is in as good a place as we can be, um, out there in the market trying to recruit players and, and we’re excited about, about the summer and getting the squad together to head off to Spain, do their gelling and do the hard work in training and be ready for next season.

Tom Cliffe: Can I just say something on that from a, a fan’s [00:53:00] perspective? Obviously, my role on the board is, is representing the supporters and the work that goes on behind the scenes is phenomenal. The, the level of detail, the attention to detail, the information shared, you wouldn’t expect me to share that with everyone because it’s about protecting the club.

There’ll be so many rumors on Twitter. Are we gonna sign this person? Someone over there will be asking me a question week in, week out, when’s the new signing coming? The truth is that that work is going on. All the time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and there’ll be players that are there. And I think a, a as, as supporters, it’s an exciting time.

Um, you know, and it’s, we’ve got a couple of extra weeks to actually enjoy the end of the season this time. But when you’re looking at, at those numbers, I think I’ve spoken many times about my role and sometimes it’s about whether you think with your heart or your head and actually a player and, and their value.

You know, now compared to, you know, I, I had players last year, you know, rather have signed 8,000 players before the end of June. And, and you know, we’re being left behind as a club. Why aren’t we signing players now? But actually then those [00:54:00] opportunities and the value of players change. And I think, you know, James, the team does a fantastic job of, of stretching every pound as far as you can.

But there is a reality. And when you see the stats of player wages of people who signed two years ago versus what a, a midfielder might cost this summer, I’ve no doubt the costs will go up again because you, you see the league budgets and it, it’s phenomenal. So I think, again, I just wanna say on behalf of the fans, a huge thank you to James and all that background work that doesn’t get seen.

We, we enjoy the rumors on Twitter most of the time, but there is so much hard work that goes on that I’ve had a little bit of an insight to, and, and just wanna again say thank you to the, the James and his team for, for all that work that they do over the summer. 

Kevin Nolan: Just to add to that as well, because obviously we, we, we get strong players left, right, and center, and obviously the rumor mill’s gonna be, but I think the most important thing is that we’ve gotta protect Northampton too.

So when, when you are looking at players and sometimes they’ll come back and the agents just ask for an astronomical salary, and [00:55:00] you’re thinking he’s not waved that. We have to have that conversation as well. So as much as we might like to play and we think he’s gonna be good for the club, and, and he’s a good lad, sometimes they’re asking for ridiculous amount of money.

And we’re, and we we’re not prepared to pay that. So that’s why we’ve gotta do our jobs and we’ve gotta work hard. And that’s why we do, and that’s why we’ve got a good team and, and James and with Alex and then obviously, um, the boss and, and the, and the rest of the owners who work hard, you know. Behind the scenes if you like, and we’ve gotta be the forefront.

So it, it’s, it’s about getting the right character and people wanting to come to Northampton and play for the club. And I think that’s why you get a Teddy Taylor and he’s been one of our best performers ’cause he wanted to come here. You know, don’t, don’t get me wrong, I spoke to two or three other sentiment fielders at the, at that time as well.

And it’s when you get off the phone, you sort of realize Teddy Taylor’s the one we wanted. He’s the one. And then you see why, because he wants to come, he wants to play, he wants to play for Northampton and he wants to come and play under the stewardship of us as well. And he sees what, what a, what a good structure it was.

’cause that way, that was quite a difficult deal [00:56:00] to do as well. Does he want to come 

Question: back next year? 

Kevin Nolan: Well. Well, oh, look, it’s, it’s, it’s a conversation. We haven’t, we, we haven’t, I think he’s enjoyed his time here. He’s really mixed in well with the lad who’ve been here for a long time. You know, I know that they were all out, out golfing yesterday and he, he’d stayed over and everything else.

So, um, yeah, look, I think he’s really enjoyed his time here. So I think there’s a real good opportunity. But as I said, you know, it was an extremely difficult deal to do. But it was one what these guys got over the line because of, ’cause you know, he was one we thought, yeah, he wa he was worth the money and, and, and the, and the, and the owners and, and the boss, uh, help, help with that, you know, by, by giving us that to, to be able to do that.

Charles Commins: Brilliant. I’ve got one over here. Thank you, Tom, by the way. Otherwise it would’ve felt like you turned up for nothing. So, uh, fair play. Negging in on a question. 

Question: Thank you. Hi. It’s a bit of a two part, first one for, for Kevin. Um, what sort of size of squad are you thinking of having [00:57:00] sort of next season?

’cause I didn’t realize till this year when we had so many injured players, when we suddenly got told that we actually couldn’t sign anymore at one stage, I was quite surprised. So interested your site, your thoughts on the number of players and then one for Calvin. I think Tom sort of touched on it then about wage inflation.

Do you think wage inflation won’t really go away until we sort out the government, the government, was it football bill where perhaps the premiership might need to give us a bit more money to sort of equalize it down into the lower leagues or do you think it will until that happens and I think it will change, I dunno, keep inflation going up.

Kevin Nolan: Yeah. Look, no, I, I, I want to sort of have a squad, which I can, I can manage on a day-to-day basis. So I, I, in, in. The, the, the ultimate i’d, I’d like 20 outfielders. Two for every position with three goalkeepers. So you have a 23 month squad, and then you can sort of, if you do lose someone for a couple of days, sort of promote from within.

We, so you give them lads opportunities to, to step up and see what, what, what we have underneath. Um, ’cause at the moment, uh, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re now training 20 [00:58:00] plus every day, aren’t we? Now we, now we’ve got them all back. But when I first walked in, I think we were training with 11 or 12. So, you know, it’s, it’s been a massive turnaround in a few months.

But what we want is, we want, we want that to be in the, the late teens numbers every, every, every day. ’cause you, if you can work with them individuals and you can get them working and, and look, it, it, it. It is one of them, you know, James just touched on it then about the timing of, of bringing players in.

And look, we’d all love to have our players in for the first day preseason, but he understand that what we’ve gotta, what we’ve gotta do is we’ll have a base and we’ll try and get as many as we can done early doors, but you are in the pecking order. And so when you sort of going for the loans, just so you know, it is like pre Premier League will be looking and they might have championship clubs who, who, who are asking for the same players who we are, but they’re asking them on the first week now, it doesn’t help the fact that they’ve brought the, the, the season a week before the, the, the championship now.

And, and, and then you’ve got the. Premier League the week after that. ’cause a lot of Premier League [00:59:00] teams don’t want to release their players until they’ve been on their tours, because they’ll take the young lads on the tours. So we’ve gotta be patient in them and real recognize which ones we wanna wait for.

And if we, if we’re gonna wait first and foremost, as well as getting the ones what we want. Want in input. Just to go back to squad size, in a perfect world, there’d be 20 outfielders. Um, and then, and then, um, three goalkeepers. Yeah. That one of them being dodgy. Three 

Kelvin Thomas: goalkeepers. Geez. Haven’t you seen that?

We, we train with three every day. Doesn do. Um, so going to your question on the regulation, I think. Uh, the, the, the, the, the regulator is gonna help in the, there’s, there’s a couple of issues with that. We’ve, we, in football, has created its own problem with salary inflation. We haven’t, it’s, it’s been our biggest problem.

If you go back to Covid, when we actually got a salary cap in place and it got [01:00:00] take, got attacked by the PFA and they, they took it away and we had to rescind it. And I was quite involved in that process because I think the salary cap is important. Now, how you do that, um, is, is up for question and up for debate.

But the problem we’ve always got in this country, or, or in the game at the moment is we all, we don’t, we’ve never been strong enough with the, with the, with cap. Not whether it’s a sort, a hard cap or related to revenues, et cetera. We’ve not been strong enough and we always say, well, if so and so comes in, they wanna expend whatever they want and et cetera, et cetera.

The, the, the, the regulator, I don’t think will. Do as much on the salary inflation as we need to. What, what I think will happen is, is they will, the, the funnel down of money from the Premier League will be higher. Hopefully, which will then it. But the problem is again, and as football has proved in so many times, whenever clubs get more money, guess what they do?

They spend more money on players. Now, [01:01:00] that’s not, of course it’s our fault as owners, but it’s also as fans, it’s the expectations of fans that you’ve got to keep up. And, you know, and, and I, and I get it, like I don’t, I’m a, you know, as people know, I’m a West End fan and I don’t look at the owners and go, you know.

You need to, I need, I’m gonna worry about your bank balance. I want good players on the pitch. And that’s what happened. That is football. And we get, and we understand that. So we’ve gotta try and as I’m talking about football, not just Northampton, ’cause we’ve gotta try and compete in whatever division we’re in, but we’ve gotta, as football, we’ve gotta look at ways to, to increase the income, which the football league have done.

In fairness, they’ve done a very good job at, if you look at the income levels. But we also need to look at how do we control the expenses and the ’cause. The problem you get is about competitive balance. And, and you’re seeing it now in the, in the, you’re seeing it from the championship to the Premier league.

No one’s surviving, no one’s going from the championship. And, and if you look at the teams that are promoted, I think, I think it’s something like James will [01:02:00] know more, but I think it’s, you know, the top two positions, the first two positions, it’s seven out of eight teams have that have come down. You know, it just, it, there, there we are losing that competitive balance because the, the, the inequity involved in the financial aspect of the TV money.

So hopefully the regulator has an impact, but we’ve hoped that for the last probably four years, 

Charles Commins: we’ve got a, 

Kelvin Thomas: we’ll see, we’ve got another question 

Charles Commins: over here. 

Question: Um, can I get Kevin and Collin’s opinion on the injuries and the situation that’s happened particularly this season? Um, I’ve, I’ve supported the copper for many years and in my opinion it seems most seasons we have an issue of some sort, a mini crisis, whatever.

Now I’m not saying we shouldn’t get injuries ’cause clearly you’ll get injuries every football club does. But what’s your opinion? Do you think [01:03:00] there is an underlying issue or have we simply been unlucky? 

Colin Calderwood: Yeah, that there, there’s gotta be an issue. So we’ve got, um, and everyone I think preseason can take care of, hopefully some of it, but, uh, in preseason and certainly this preseason, um, players will be pushed and probably right, right to the edge, but hopefully in a way that it, it doesn’t tip them over a little bit.

Um, and we’re having discussions about the, the number of games, but the, we’re in our heads at the minute we’re thinking this is going, we’re going to make this a really tough foundational preseason that, and, um, we’re probably use some of the stuff that Kevin used to run and unfortunately still beating some of the players when he runs it now.

Um, but we, we’ve, we keep asking the, the questions and we’ve gotta look internally and we’ve gotta look at ourselves and, and think, what have we done? I. Um, and, and [01:04:00] why has it gone that way? But, uh, the other side of that, if you look at the injuries since January, John Guthrie, no contact injuries start landing the floor.

Liam Shaw, no contact injury doing his cruciate as well. Um, that, uh, there’s an element of, uh, looking us in in those ones. So, um, we’re trying to address it. We, we’ll definitely we think we’re addressing it in what we’re going to do preseason. And we’re, we’re going to make sure that the work that happens Monday to Friday makes some, um, robust functional enough for a Saturday.

Um, and, and listen, if if we haven’t improved it, then we will have been doing something wrong again, because I think injuries have gone up and up and up. People report injuries in different ways. Unfortunately, it tells you some players don’t want to play all the time and they’ll use an injury as an excuse.

And that’s just a, a little bit of what happens as [01:05:00] the game has progressed a little bit. Some people like being out the firing line and that’s, um, that’s right across the board. That’s not Northampton town. That’s right across the board. Some people don’t want to fight the fight and they’ll be down as injured and actually they might not be.

But we’ve, we’ve got a quite a big issue to address and we think we’ve already had good discussions about it. The preseason is, is fairly long. It’ll be arduous and um, I’m quite looking forward to it.

Charles Commins: Fo following up on that a little bit, Colin, if you can. There’s been talk about the changes to the laws of the game in terms of how long we are playing stoppage. Time is a bit longer, obviously, that dies off after about three weeks. You stop getting your nine minutes and everything like that. But I, is that a factor that the, the things that are being done by, you know, those that put the laws in place to make the game, [01:06:00] I suppose better for us as fans, is that actually having an adverse effect on the, the players and the squads?

Colin Calderwood: Um, my, in my opinion, we, we are actually a blame for the rule changes. The rule changes are meant to make it a more entertaining, uh, event. When people come and support and they’re there not to be encouraged, time wasting. And, and you can see it where people who, uh, goal is to drop to the ground. They can’t come off the pitch.

Now, substitutions being 30 seconds off the pitch irritates everybody, but it’s only because we were at it trying to be tactical. Try to do the dark side of the game, try and see the game out in a different way. So we, we are, we are the ones who are to players, coaches, managers are all the ones to, uh, blame.

The people who run the game have actually had some really good inventive rules. Three points, playoffs and goalkeeper, not being able to pick the ball up. All that’s meant, encourage entertainment and we’ll find a way to make sure [01:07:00] it’s not as entertaining.

Charles Commins: I enjoyed 

Question: that. That’s good. Like that. Thank you. Um, everybody’s got an, an opinion on everything in football, particularly tactics. Um, and the only opinion that really matters is yours ’cause it’s your job that’s kind of hanging on it if it works or doesn’t work. And sometimes as fans, we don’t know all the factors that go into the decisions that you make.

Um, sometimes for very good reasons. ’cause you don’t wanna tell opposition, give them an advantage. So giving an example, um, I’ve always been a fan of leaving somebody up at corners, not having all 11 back. ’cause it gives you, you know, potentially a counter attack, potentially can alleviate pressure. Um, equally, I know that there’s, uh, some analysis that says you are more li uh, better likely to defend a corner by having it everybody back statistically.

So, you know, [01:08:00] there’s, there’s two sides to the coin. It’s, it’s kind of an opinion thing. So we’ve been defending with 11 back this season. Is that because you think that’s the best way to defend them with your, the, the players you have available in this sit situation or is that kind of a, your ethos going forward to actually, you know, the stats are right and and that’s how you want to, to play that kind of, you know, defender set piece.

Kevin Nolan: Yeah, well I’ve done obviously a lot of work as a culture at West Am and, and then all the way throughout my career we, we’ve, you know, you’re very rarely left one, one up or two up. You know, there’s a lot of teams who, who do it against us. ’cause they see us as a, a real, you know, threat at, at them. You know, you’re seeing Blackpool here, I think, uh, leave three up on our throw ins and our, on our, on our corners and stuff.

So it’s something we’re, what we’re, we’ve adapted to, but it’s not something that I, I I, I wouldn’t change, you know, if, if I thought that it could help it and we could sort of keep someone back or we keep two back to, to give us space and things like that. But I think when I’ve looked at it in. [01:09:00] A whole, you know, a host of, of corners, not just our team or just Northampton, or it wasn’t just West Am it was across the board.

Um, the, the, that the stats were telling you that basically that, you know, you were less likely to score a goal and even leaving one up didn’t give you the opportunity to score a goal. Um, I think you, you see, you know what, what I would like is that we could counter. A lot quicker and a lot better than what, what we have.

Uh, and that’s something again, which hopefully will progress into next season. You’ll see that come, come to fruition in, in terms of our in possession stuff. So it’s something which I’m probably gonna change because I, I want, I want to change the, what, what, what we do on our defensive corners. But, ’cause it was something, what was working, I didn’t want to, you know, take it away.

And the lads were comfortable with it, but it’s something now what we can sort of put, put in, in place as, as how I, I, how I wanted to do it and how I did it. ’cause I work with David, uh, on the set pieces for, for, [01:10:00] for, uh, for and against, you know, uh, at West End. So yeah, I’ve done a, a lot of work on, on, on just them, them bits really.

So yeah, I’ve got, I’ve got a way of how I want them all to work and you know, there’s a lot of things where people say, oh, you’ve got a chance to go to the back post, or you should take a shot against this team. Um. What, what, uh, we looked at years and years ago at Bolton, ’cause we used to change every three weeks or every foot, every month we used to change it.

And when we went back on the season, we weren’t getting any better at any corners or throwings or anything, what we’d done. Um, and so when we look back, it was just, it, it’s much better to stick to what the lads know, and that’s even at the top end. And so it’s even more thing that this, the next year is gonna be, you know, drilled into the lads what’s expected them defensively and offensively and, and when we’re in defensive moments where, where we would wanna clear the ball if we get the opportunity and where, where we’d have all sort of our quicker plays if you likes it, to make sure that we can get that counted and, and get up the pitch [01:11:00] quicker than what, what, what we have been doing anyway.

Certainly. 

Charles Commins: Lovely. I’ll 

Colin Calderwood: go on call. Yeah. Though, um, you’ve picked a good topic here because we, we debate long and hard over this and, um. When I was at South Hampton because of the, the sort of statistical stuff and, and information that would get fed into premiership clubs, as Kevs alluded to, it was, it was really eye opening.

The information you could glean and read and what was, uh, what they, what people felt was the best way to defend, attack, um, corners restarts. And, um, Kev, Kev is really good at that. You can see he’s got experience. He knows exactly where everyone, he, everyone should be. He’s very strong in terms of when we make substitutions, when substitutions are made, that’s when the.

Everyone’s calling us, uh, decrease in terms of scoring, but they also decrease in terms of d defending. So the equation doesn’t look any different, [01:12:00] but the what actually happens is so far away from what should happen because of substitution. Really strong in that. And it’s a, a real good coaching principle that we’ve got at the club, and it’s through him.

And I think, we’ll, we’ve gotta get better and better at these restarts we do. We, um, there’s more throw ins than corner kicks, so why don’t we practice them? And we think we do all that type of stuff is, has been fed into, is there’s a perfect setup for, um, an in swinging corner. There’s a perfect setup for an out swinging corner.

You, it goes on page, after page, after page, after data point, after data point. We’ve gotta thin it through and adapt it to the abilities over our players. Um, and I think we’ve got someone who’s, who’s really keen on that side of it. Um, and as Kev said, there’s, there’s, I don’t think there’s, there’s no detail that tells you leaving one up allows people to do leave two back because they don’t do that anymore.

[01:13:00] They defend by one and they get extra men free in the box. Depending on if you’re zone or Laman marking ET goes on. Why don’t you have two people on the post? Because, uh, pep got the older, don’t do it. And then no one else does.

Charles Commins: Great stuff. 

Colin Calderwood: Thank you very much. 

Question: You, you say you’re going to pre to Spain pre-season. Um, can you tell us where or when or how long for, or 

James Whiting: Yeah, we’ve, we’ve just finalized the details of that, so, um, we’re just, I think we’re just finalizing flights and things like that, so we’ll get the details out, Jenny, as soon as possible.

Um, discussion still going on about whether there’s any games over there, whether it’s a training camp. So as soon as we’ve got more details, we’ll be sure to share them. 

Charles Commins: Someone’s looking for a holiday. Lovely. Let me get round all the way round here. Excuse me. Thank you.

Question: I’m not sure if this is for Kelvin or for James. It’s in regards to [01:14:00] the media team and the quality of microphones they use in post-match press conferences. If there’s like a gust of wind or people running around on the pitch afterwards, the standard is absolutely terrible. You can barely hear what’s being said.

Just wondered if we could invest in a couple of decent microphones. Maybe it’s a question for Gareth to be fair. Sorry, I don’t mean to bash you, Gareth. I know, to be fair, 

Kelvin Thomas: it’s, it is something, obviously we have a relatively well-known media personality on the board that does tend to send me messages after he sees an interview about it.

So I think it’s definitely something that I’ll, uh, James, I’ll leave in James’ as capable hands to potentially improve. 

Charles Commins: What a wonderful question. That was a Gareth, obviously a Gareth 

Kelvin Thomas: plant. 

Question: This one’s for Tom. Um, the fans advisory board. Yeah. I’m must, I’m a member on that one. But just an update from Tom, a reminder about what the purpose is of it for everybody.

Um, that they can go to any board member with any [01:15:00] issues. Also what happens when we bring them to you and all of, any of the brilliant stuff that’s been done and is coming up. In the future from it. 

Tom Cliffe: Yeah. Thank you for, for doing that. I’m glad I, I’m glad I’m here now. So yeah. Uh, I’ll pay you the five or later.

Look, the whole point of this football club, and it has been for years. I’m a supporter. First season, 86, 87. We all have different opinions. It was my fault before the kickoff at Peterborough that Kevin picked the wrong team. I was getting abused when I got off the bus. Why are you doing, I didn’t get the congratulations though when we won, but as supporters, we, this is our club and the nicest thing we’ve got is different ways of getting ideas to these people.

So I represent you. I’ve spoken to James yesterday. I’ve spoken to the commercial team. Today I’m meeting with Kelvin on Friday. There were always conversations going on, never about Bristol Rovers or conversations. It’s always about things to try and make it better for you. The idea of the fan advisory board was to allow you to get different ways of [01:16:00] communication into the club.

You know me, I’m on the nine 18 train on Saturday. If anyone wants to join me at Crawley away, I’ll be at every home game every away game. You can come and gimme ideas, but I recognize some of you won’t wanna do that. So there are other formats. So we’ve got online. I’ve got Heidi here from her game too.

We’ve got different groups of representation for supporters. And actually what I think is really important there is that we get different voices. We talk about the fantastic facility behind us here. We got some great feedback. I’m not sure whether Abby’s here today, but in terms of ideas and making things better, that idea won’t always just come straight to me.

If you message anyone at the club, you’ll get a response, but it’s about giving different voices. The meetings are quarterly and the idea there is that actually we can go through and just get that breadth of ideas. And, you know, from, uh, the match day experience, we’re looking at the, the supporter stones, the Brian Lomax fan zones, we’re looking at changes that actually I think was one of the ideas you [01:17:00] came up with, of, of shutting the gate on a match day.

So we can actually have a much broader error in the await team as to travel round. So. That’s the point of the fan advisory board that you can speak to people. I read all of the forums, most polite. I’ve got more nicknames than I ever knew. Um, but look, I read them. I’m a Cobbler fan. I wake up every day.

I’ve actually slept, uh, the, the other day after Monday’s result. I, I love the club, but we all want what’s best and the truth is. We sometimes have different ideas, and that advisory board is about that breadth of ideas of of, of kind of taking things forward. The nicest thing from my point of view, when those ideas go forward, whether it’s to James, Kelvin, Gareth, um, these, these are things that have 99.9% already been thought of because we’ve got staff here that care about the club.

They’ve been here a long time. They know their supporters themselves. So when I go and say, I think this would be a good idea, James will say, yeah, we’ve looked into that. Here’s a reason. And again, the [01:18:00] longevity of the club. There’s things we’d love to do, um, but sometimes. They’re not the right moment in, in, in time for the club.

We’ve said about becoming a sustainable team, and I think everyone in the room takes some credit for that because, you know, we travel up and down the country. I know we’ve got the supporters clubs that run, the coaches, we all play our part in that. And I think that’s, that’s what’s what’s great. And the advisory board isn’t there as a wishlist.

It’s not a demand, it’s not a tick list of here’s everything we’ve got to do and go forward. But it’s about bringing those ideas and. We come in and seeing them come to fruition. And I’ve met with fan representatives at other clubs where they’re not allowed conversations. There won’t be discussions here.

It’s, it’s as simple as, you know, if you said, oh, I’ve got a point for Kelvin, he’d meet with you. He’ll have those conversations. And you might not always like the answer, but in truth it’s because it’s for the best of the football club. 

Kelvin Thomas: Uh, and to sort of echo that with, with Tom, what, what, I don’t know how people, we’ve talked about this a little bit before, so some of [01:19:00] you may know, some of, you know, we obviously have a board, the hierarchy of the club.

We have a board directors, but we meet like every quarter or whatever, and we, we get together and we talk about that and Tom is part of that. But what’s more important for the football club and what actually is the engine of the club, I think is our, is our WhatsApp group, which is myself, James, that’s ano.

There you go, Barry. Yeah. Is that a coach? Is that someone who wants to come on Saturday? I’ll take, take it, take it, take it. Yeah. Yeah. Take it. Um, so but the, but the WhatsApp group is what I actually consider the engine of the club. And, and, and I think there’ll be very, very few clubs that will have the fan director on that WhatsApp group.

And it’s Tom James, myself, and, and Gareth. Um, and that is the, that is where, you know, Tom will constantly put things in there that say, Hey, what about this, what about this? Let’s talk about that. And we all do it. And we all talk about it. And, and, and we talk about [01:20:00] all kinds of things in football. And that is the, the, the, the heartbeat of the club in, in, in, in terms of decision making.

And, and, and Tom is, you know, we talk about the fab and, and, and that’s the extension of what Tom does. But what Tom does, I. Is he’s part of that decision making process. And I do think, and I do will say it openly, I think there are very, very few clubs that have that from a fan director. And we are lucky to have Tom or we’re lucky to have that position.

But Tom especially, and I think him winning the election last time without anyone going up against him, is a reflection of Tom and what he, what he does and how much respect he has with the fan base. But he is part of that decision making. So when we get it wrong, it’s Tom as well. So, so, but, but in truth, when we get it right, which I think I’ve safe to say, I think we have over the last few years quite a lot.

Tom is part of that too. And then that, and then that extension, the fans are as well, because I can assure you and Tom will tell us constantly on the group [01:21:00] who talks to him and how they talk to him and, and, and, and, and where they’re, and him going to games. It must be exhausting for Tom. But he loves it.

And that’s the, that’s the beauty of it. He loves it. And because he does, you know, his heartbeat is at Northampton. 

Charles Commins: Right. We have got less than 10 minutes left. Can I get a show of hands? ’cause I saw some people, there was one up the bat, which I will go to. I’ve got one here that I will come to as well. Uh, so this is a warning for you guys.

There’s about 10 minutes left. We can keep our answers a little bit more succinct. Kelvin? 

Tom Cliffe: Yes. 

Question: Right. This is, this is a question, this is a question specifically for Kelvin. Do you have any, any plans or ideas on using six fields for any outdoor events, which would bring in more revenue to the club 

Kelvin Thomas: in terms of like concerts and things like that?

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, probably not. Uh, we’ve talked about it [01:22:00] quite a bit. Um, and it looks, it always looks great. But if you talk to clubs that do it, it’s a high risk. It’s a high risk, uh, it creates problems with the pitch. Um, and we like, you know, long time ago, for example, uh, rod Stewart, was it Rod? I think it was Rod Stewart was, you know, we would’ve had to commit a million quid.

And when you worked out all the numbers, it probably made 60 grand. That’s too high risk for us as a football club. I’m sorry. It’s just, it just is, and we don’t really have the capacity and we don’t really want to cover the pitch. So the only way you’re gonna get the capacity up is by covering the pitch.

And if you look, you know, not as many artists are doing it. A lot of people are doing like the three day sort of festivals, but we have a very, very important month, in my opinion, for this football club, which is the month of May. Yeah. In terms of our community outreach, what happens in May, and some of you may know about it, some of you don’t, but what happens in May for [01:23:00] me is one of the imp most important months of the football club in terms of the community, because we, the events that come on the, the, the, the, the borough cup that the, the, the.

Kids that come and play on the pitch and all, everyone that the, the bus, the cobblers cup and all that kind of stuff is very important. So then when you, you, you extend the pitch through May, then you start your renovations in June, you have a real small window and it’s probably, there’s probably isn’t even a window of being able to do something where you cover the pitch.

So one, we’ve talked about it many times and we’ve looked at the opportunities and we’re always looking at ways. And I think, you know, James, the other James from the commercial Corrigan, I think has done a phenomenal job of increasing our commercial revenues, um, recently. And we are always looking at ways, we’re always looking at ways, but you know, this, and sorry to go on a little bit, um, but, but this is the very important part of the football club.

We have to always understand and, and. We get knocked sometimes for this, [01:24:00] but it is actually the other way. We, our, what we look at is we look at the football, the football is the most important part of this football club. No question. It’s the most important part. And, and that has to be right. So if we’ve got 2 million quid to spend, you know, from us as owners or invest, shall we say, if we’ve got that, and we know that our focus is a lot on the football club.

So when people sometimes say, oh, you should do this bar, or you should, you should do this. If I’m gonna, if we’re gonna invest a million quid, you know, to make 60, it doesn’t overly impact. And sometimes you look at that and go, you know, because we all want more, we all want something extra, but it all costs money.

So, but our focus is always really concentrating on the first team. Um, and, and, and, and, and trying to. Find funds or money to, to do that. Like things like these seats, you know, we’d love to do the seats [01:25:00] and it is part of the plan at some point in the other stands. ’cause now you’ve got this, it’s all nice and shiny and it makes everything else look a little bit older.

But then you say, okay, that might be a hundred and fifty, a hundred seventy five grand. It doesn’t. But then if I said to Kevin, well you can’t really have Terry Taylor because we’ve just spent that on the seats. I think there’d be a lot of people in here that’d go, what? And I think Kevin and Colin would go, what?

You know, so, but, so those are the sort of decisions we’re always making. So in terms of events on the pitch, uh, concerts, that kind of stuff, I don’t see it in our near future. 

Charles Commins: Thanks Kelvin. Thank you. There was a question over here. We’ll see how many we can get and maybe there’ll be quick fire. 

Question: Um, I don’t think we can go without mentioning out there.

Um, I’m a bit surprised how good it is, if I was honest. It is. Wow. Doesn’t do it justice. It is that good. And, um, great, great gas to go to. You and I sat out there at the last game wondering what the, it would be [01:26:00] like had you not brought the club. So, Greg, Greg has to go to you, the board, the management, and also the staff on the day.

I’ve never been called sir. So often it’s, it is really Wow. 

Kelvin Thomas: So, well, we appreciate it and obviously we appreciate the faith you had in us beforehand. I think you, you, we surprised you so much. Yeah. Uh, I, again, I can only say it again. Credit and, and, and, and on the day, the match day start, I agree with you completely.

You know, and it’s all been new. That’s the other thing people are, I said to somebody the other day, I almost didn’t get in the first game. ’cause the security guy who was new wouldn’t, wouldn’t let, ’cause I never had a, a tag, which is good. And I told him that. I said, that’s really good. But, you know, it’s all about making the experience better, raising the expectations.

Um, and I think Colin said it, I think Colin said it in an interview, um, if he remembers, but, uh, last week. But, but, but he said [01:27:00] it, and he said it. It’s all, it’s about making every, everything better. It’s about every department, every, everything we do, we’re not gonna get it. All right. We’re not gonna get, it’s not gonna be perfect.

You know, we’re gonna talk about the land tomorrow and, and it’ll be people up in arms that we’re actually doing what we’re gonna do on that. But, but, but the focus is always, it’s, it’s about benefiting the football club. And, and that’s what we’ve done here and we’ve, I’m the most proud of the fact that someone like yourself is saying it’s really good.

And watch, I was doing an interview with Jake and seeing people taking pictures out there because they’re impressed with it is, you know, and, and we’ve been told, of course you people have been told that it was gonna be terrible and it was gonna, you know, it was gonna be non-league and it, et cetera, et cetera.

But we knew all along. That wasn’t our direction. Our direction was to, to, to give, give the football club something that we’re all proud of because we are here as well. We’re sitting down here, we’re walking through here. And if we’d have been sitting here and the lights were falling down and, and I have to give credit to GRS [01:28:00] in the, it’s crazy to think that it took that long.

But in the, for the speed that they, they built it in was, was, was, was unheard of really. That that was, and there’s a lot of people I’m sure in the construction industry that, that would accept that as well. So we, we appreciate that. But it is credit to everywhere. A lot of people in this room, including the people up here on the panel.

Kelby, can I just echo, add.

Question: So Abby couldn’t come tonight, but she wanted me to pass on a message. I dunno if you’ve heard her on the radio. Um, so for five, six years we was at the bottom of the east stand. Abby couldn’t go up the stairs. Um, she missed, couldn’t see so much of the pitch because we had the paramedics in front of us.

Kelvin Thomas: Probably a good thing sometimes. 

Question: Um, and the, and the managers. So we went to a lot of away games and we all, and I’ve, we’ve had many a conversation with you and James that we got looked after at the away games. Abby had a [01:29:00] really good view. Anyway, so we’ve come to the last two games and Abby can’t believe how much of the.

Game, she’s actually missed and she’s, you know, how much the football means to her. And to see the whole pitch. Um, on Monday, you know, she got excited because she saw Bergie head the ball, like things she hasn’t been able to see. So 

Kelvin Thomas: I’m sure it got worse when Kevin came as well, because, 

Question: you 

Kelvin Thomas: know, in fairness, standing behind, sitting behind Kevin would’ve been a bit of a nightmare compared to John.

But, but that’s, if, if I’m honest, that that is probably the proudest point that we have as a football club is being able to replace. And, and, and that was one of my biggest frustrations with the, the constant delays that we had, that were unavoidable for us. But, but seeing people and knowing that people couldn’t, you know, were having that experience and we couldn’t do anything about it.

Um, and, you know, and, and how, and, and I, I’ve actually not been here for a game when that’s been open, so [01:30:00] I’m, I’m looking forward to the last game of the season. 

Question: Yeah. So to 

Kelvin Thomas: do that, 

Question: she drove here on Saturday and it was raining and she said like, mum, I wouldn’t have been able to come if it was raining ’cause she’s missed so many games.

So a big thank you from her and can just say a big thank you to Tom for all what he does for us fans. ’cause it must be the hardest job. Um, he gets a lot of grief. Um, but yeah, we do appreciate what you do. Thank you. 

Charles Commins: Right. Just this is Kelvin’s fault. I’m gonna do one last question. 

Question: Um, again, I’ve been coming 60 years next year.

I’ve never felt so positive about the club. You’ve done fantastic, Kelvin, absolutely fantastic. Um, just one observation. I think Colin might quite like this. I love to see a Scottish player walk through this door, or a player who’s come from Scotland, John Guthrie, Aaron McGowan, um, Mitch Pinner. They’d all run through a brick wall for you.

And then going on from that, Mark Leonard, Kieran Bowie, [01:31:00] um, Terry Taylor has one other I can think of, but they just, there’s only 

Kelvin Thomas: two of those six that are Scottish. 

Question: Nah, no, no. Yeah, I know. But they’re all played in Scotland and Ter Terry’s the latest one. And, um, Louis Apre would’ve like a real workhorse. I know when everybody’s cup of tea, but I thought he was a real workhorse.

I’d just love to see a Scottish player come through the door. I really do. They give everything, you know. That’s it. I’ve got enough 

Kevin Nolan: in the building these yet.

Charles Commins: Right. Thank you very much. Um. To couple of, couple of parish notices as I would normally say on the podcast. Uh, first of all, thank you very much for coming on Sunday here at Six Fields. It’s NTFC Women’s Last Game of the Season. It is against that blue lot from down the road. They have already beaten them three times this season, won the county cup against them last Thursday or the Thursday before.

[01:32:00] Um, they basically just need to draw at least to finish second in the league behind LOF for Lightning. I. Um, if you can come down and support the girls, that would be tremendous. We’re looking to beat the record attendance, which I think is 1200, something like that, uh, for an attendance here at Six Girls For the Women.

Um, there’s also the community day that’s taking place, so I know that for the first team, men’s team, we’ve had Community Days in preseason before. This will be the first one that has been done specifically for the women. I will be here with my banner. I dunno what else I’m doing. I might just stand there for a day with that.

I dunno yet, but there’s lots going on. Bring your kids, if you’ve got them, uh, bring your. Rest of your family and stuff can come and have a really good, good day. Uh, that’s on Sunday, so please come down and support the girls in the last game of the season. Uh, the other thing to do is if you haven’t already, please listen to the podcast.

Thanks very much. Uh, and finally, thank [01:33:00] you for all of you for coming. It is been really, really good. I’m sorry if we didn’t get through to your question. I think it’s been a really good evening and, uh, yeah, we’ve had some good answers tonight, which has been good. So can we all just thank our panel as well?

Thanks for listening to It’s All Cobbles to me. We’ll be back later this week with the preview show where we’ll be chatting to a Crawley fan ahead of Saturday’s game, and then on Monday we’ll have an episode looking back on that game, the Fans Forum and Sunday’s final NTFC Women Game of the season. If you are going to that game on Sunday, I’ll see you there.

Thanks very much for listening and of course, a big thank you to everyone at Northampton Town Football Club for asking us to host the event. Once again, I hope you [01:34:00] enjoyed it if you were there, and if you’ve just listened to it now. Well, I hope you’ve got a lot out of it. It certainly sounds like there’s a busy summer ahead for Kevin Nolan and his management team.

Hopefully it’ll be another good season next year. Anyway. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Goodbye.

Question: Wait, there’s the cup. There’s the pictures. You’ll see on tomorrow’s back pages. The coppers are going through in the division one. Bring ’em on because we deserve it.