Aidy Boothroyd will urge his Cobblers players to capitalise on an injury situation at Bradford City that is almost as bad as the one at Sixfields when the teams meet in the FA Cup on Saturday.
Town will be without four of their most established first-team players with top goalscorer Alex Nicholls added to a missing list that already includes David Artell, Luke Guttridge and Ben Harding.
That burden was lightened this week with the news that John Johnson and Chris Hackett - who has arguably the club’s most consistent player of the current campaign - have returned to fitness.
Bradford will be without both of their first-choice central defenders, with the giant Luke Oliver and Andrew Davies, who excelled in a 1-0 win at Sixfields 10 days ago, both ruled out.
Central midfielder Ricky Ravenhill also turned in a good performance in the league meeting between the sides and is also missing through suspension.
Both managers will name starting line-ups diluted in quality as a result of the absence, and Boothroyd is confident his fringe players can better Bradford’s to secure a second-round place.
“They’ve lost Luke Oliver to an Achilles injury, (Andrew) Davies is out for a period of time and Nakhi Wells went off in the game on Tuesday but the boys that came in did very well,” he said.
“They’ve got enough depth to be able to get through injuries like that but if they get even more injuries on the top of that then they’re going to really struggle.
“That’s where we are right now but either way you’ve got to take advantage and hope that the boys given a chance don’t step up to the levels of the previous players.”
Bradford have been in outstanding cup form this season and this week reached the quarter-finals of the Capital One Cup by winning at Premier League side Wigan Athletic on penalties.
Their reward for that was a last-eight tie with Arsenal at Valley Parade, for which the club hope to earn in the region of £300,000 through gate receipts and television money.
Such an injection of cash, combined with a sole pre-season ambition at Bradford to win promotion, means the FA Cup might take on limited importance for Northampton’s weekend opponents.
But Boothroyd is fully aware of the financial incentives in the world’s oldest knockout competition, with a win in round one carrying a prize of £18,000.
“But you know it’s the FA Cup and it’ll mean a lot to both teams if they get through to the next round because of the extra revenue that it brings in.
“That is important because it repays some of the money that the chairman has had to invest on bringing other players in.”
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