Northampton Town’s chances of making the League One play-offs have taken another blow with the possibility of Sam Sherring not being available for Tuesday night’s visit to Oxford United.
It is very much a must-win game for Northampton if they want to keep any realistic chance of promotion this season. Currently sat in 11th, 12 points off of the final play-off spot, it is a game which they cannot afford to lose if they still want to be in the hunt.
Oxford are in fact the team that currently operate in that final play-off spot, and represent a hard task on the road for Jon Brady’s side. The U’s are also unbeaten in their last five and albeit three of those have been draws, they look a rather strong side at the minute.
Although promotion to the Championship would’ve been a dream for many Cobblers fans at the start of the season, they started the New Year in ninth with just a seven point gap to sixth after a great run of form. This season will still go down as a a resounding success regardless after their promotion from League Two last season, but they’ll still be hoping that they can maintain some sort of outside chance for a place in the play-offs.
The task at hand has however been made harder with the news that Sam Sherring may not be in the squad for the clash with Oxford on Tuesday. Having gone off injured in their 3-1 win over Bristol Rovers on Saturday, there is a growing concern that Sherring may be set for another spell on the sidelines.
That game against Bristol Rovers was in fact the defender’s first since the end of December, having suffered a separate injury against Stevenage on Boxing Day. Prior to that, the 23-year-old had been ever-present in Northampton’s backline, and they have looked a stronger unit when Sherring has been fully fit.
In an interview on the club’s official website, manager Jon Brady gave an injury update ahead of the trip to Oxford United on Tuesday night.
“We will see how Sam goes in training. He came off in the game on Saturday but we will have to wait and see on him.
Speaking about the rest of the squad, Brady would go onto say:
“Dom Gape played two sixty minutes last Saturday-Tuesday and that’s a lot for his body to take having not played regularly for a while.
“We need to manage bodies and we have to get the load on the players right to try and make sure they can finish the season strong and so we gave him a rest on Saturday.
“We are in a busy run of games and I’m not expecting anyone else to be back for Oxford and we’ll go with what we have.”
Writer’s View
Very few would’ve expected Northampton to still be in with an outside chance of making the play-offs this season and they have surpassed expectations by still being in the hunt. A loss would all but end any dreams of promotion this season but perhaps that’s an unrealistic ambition given the size of the teams around them.
Jon Brady deserves plenty of credit for the job he has done this season and his side have easily avoided relegation.
Looking to the game against Oxford United, Sam Sherring’s availability seems as if it is very much touch and go, and with Brady stating that he needs to manage bodies, we may not see the defender risked.
