Friday night’s trip to Barnet is likely to provide plenty of cause for deja-vu among the Cobblers contingent, but this is a match that should be all about opportunity for a gradually blossoming Northampton team.
Mentions of the fact that the Bees are yet to win this season are likely to leave travelling supporters heading to Underhill fearing the worst, regardless of the form of both sides.
These are the kind of statistics that always seem to go against the Cobblers, so the theory goes, and it was proved by a poor Bristol Rovers side who recorded their first victory of the campaign at their expense less than a fortnight ago.
Except they don’t.
Dagenham were without a win when the Town team bus rolled up at Victoria Road last month – and they were still without a win when it departed a few hours and an Adebayo Akinfenwa header later.
So while the tendency is to urge on the side of caution and expect the worst, this game, at the risk of imposing a jinx and writing the Barnet team talk for them, has to be a banker three points for the away side.
There is a world of difference between a game against a Bristol Rovers team pumped up and playing in front of 5,000 fans and one at a dark and dingy Dagenham with one man and his dog watching.
Tonight’s game at Barnet will be a lot closer in complexion to the latter.
They are there for the taking and this Northampton team, which is starting to build some form and momentum, will take them.
The past four visits to Underhill include a dull 0-0 draw, two 4-1 defeats and a fortuitous last-gasp 2-1 win last season that was about as good as it got under Gary Johnson.
None of those will be acceptable in this game. The Cobblers have to see this as a perfect game to put down a marker; they can get into the play-off places with it (albeit only for 20 hours or so) and they can send a message out to the rest of the division that they will be a force this season.
So, the message to the players: Forget about deja-vu and concentrate on destruction. Barnet are not bottom of the Football League by accident.
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