Northampton Town versus Queens Park Rangers
Pre-Season Friendly
 Wednesday 23rd July 2008
Kick Off 19:45

Rowan Vine and Akos Buzsaky are also missing with their long term problems whilst Chris Barker, Zesh Rehman and Danny Nardiello are unlikely to feature having played at Windsor on Tuesday. Other than that though we should see run outs from most of the squad as Iain Dowie continues to try out various combinations.

COBBLERS IN BRIEF: Northampton enjoyed a turbulent start to the new millennium, churning their way through managers as they fought to stay in, what was then known as, Division Two. The appointment of Terry Fenwick in January 2003 lasted seven weeks and his replacement, Martin Wilkinson, was gone by October of the same year. During that period they slipped into the bottom division of The Football League.

Colin Calderwood finally bought some stability and success to the club, steering them back to League One via automatic promotion in 2006. Calderwood departed for Nottingham Forest soon after and was replaced by John Gorman but he too was gone just five months into the new season. Cobblers fans may have feared history was repeating itself but the appointment of Stuart Gray has proved a good one. The former Southampton boss has kept them in League One and overhauled the squad this summer following a top half finish last season.

THE MANAGER:  Stuart Gray made his name as a coach at Southampton before being given the job full time after Glenn Hoddle moved to Tottenham in 2001. However a poor start to Saints first season in the new St Marys stadium led to Rupert Lowe giving him the elbow after just three months of the season.

After being stung by his experiences, Gray returned to coaching roles with Aston Villa and Wolves before taking the managerial plunge once again when he was named the new Northampton boss in January last year.

PRE-SEASON SO FAR: This will be Northampton's first game on home turf after returning from a tour of Germany this week. They opened their pre-season schedule with a 0-0 draw at Brackley Town before jetting off to face Vihren Sandansk and FC Kleve. The first game ended in another stalemate but Town managed to see off Kleve 3-1 with Leon Constantine, Jason Crowe and Alex Dyer scoring the goals.

SUMMER SIGNINGS: Northampton have made three signings so far this season as Gray looks to build on last season.

Wideman Liam Davis spent three years at Coventry but was released this summer and signed a two year deal with Northampton shortly after.

Abdul Osman was at Gretna before they imploded and finished last season with Maidenhead. He was all set to return to The SPL with Motherwell but a failed medical scuppered that chance however that didn't stop Stuart Gray taking a chance on him this summer.

Leon Constantine has had an unhappy few seasons of late. He left Port Vale with his tail between his legs after becoming something of a target for the Vale Park boo boys. His big move to Leeds last summer didn't work out either as injury restricted him to a solitary start and he finished the season on loan at Oldham before moving to Sixfields on a free transfer earlier this month.

RANDOM FACT: The legendary Arsenal manager, Herbert Chapman, cut his managerial teeth with Northampton. Leading them to The Southern League title in 1909 which resulted in a Charity Shield appearance against Newcastle United.

LAST TIME OUT:  "A ball into the box was controlled by Blackstock and he fed it into the path of Bignot. The full back sent a cross into the middle of the area and Jones sent a delicate header into the top corner leaving Bunn no chance. It was a great moment for Jones who has come on so much in such a short space of time, even his progress from the start of this season is remarkable." QPR 3 - 2 Northampton, Tuesday 22nd August 2006.

HEAD TO HEAD

Frank Large was a centre forward for Rangers in the early sixties, he made eighteen appearances, scoring five goals before making the switch to The Cobblers in 1963.

It would be something of an understatement to say that Eric Sabin never set the world alight during his short spell at Loftus Road, scoring just once in 17 appearances. He was finally put out of his Rangers misery in 2004 joining Northampton on a free. Of course all the criticism of him would come back to bite us on the arse when he scored the third and final goal during our humbling League Cup defeat at Sixfields three years ago.

Finally Northampton currently have an ex R on their books. Giles Coke came through the Rangers youth set up but was released in 2004. He moved onto the non league scene with Kingstonian where he impressed enough to get another stab at league football with Mansfield. After two years at Field Mill he made the move to Northampton in July 2007.