The Fat Boy sings

I WAS sorely tempted to make the trip to Sixfields on Tuesday.
Then I thought about it.
The last time I went there was when Bristol Rovers were playing their first-ever season in the bottom division.
It was a wet, cold, miserable night and we lost 3-0.
Driving to and from London every week for work, it seemed a bit beyond the call of duty to do that soul-destroying M4, M25, M1 trek, particularly as for some reason I didn't fancy us getting anything from the game.
Still, there was another option - the game was live on Radio Bristol.
Admittedly, I've had some pretty bad times listening to the Gas on there, too, but at least it has evened out. The last time I tuned in on a Tuesday night we won at Hereford 2-1; Even though from the commentary available I must admit I had no idea what was happening in the match.
Still, I was quite excited.. a feeling that lasted less than a minute.
For it was then that Adebayo Akinfenwa found himself clear in our penalty area to open the scoring.
For Goodness sake, the guy is built like a giant Marshmallow. How had he managed to outwit our younger, fitter central defensive pairing?
It was like our old managers Paul Buckle and Paul Trollope had never gone away, that familiar old sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach telling me that we are in for a regulation hiding.
Pretty strange, really, because our defensive record under new boss Mark McGhee had been pretty exemplary. We had just had three clean sheets in a row, and had only conceded three goals in our last seven games.
It got worse, though. After 20 minutes we had conceded three goals ... and Akinfenwa had scored two. It's not over til the Fat Lady sings? Well, the Fat Boy was in full cry.
I couldn't listen any more and turned the radio off with a mixture of anger and confusion.
How could this be happening?
I didn't give up completely though. I decided to turn on Sky Sports - it wouldn't hurt so much seeing the goals going in on there - you wouldn't hear the Cobblers fans celebrating.
Not only that but I could flick over regularly to monitor Arsenal's amazing attempt to overturn a 4-0 deficit to AC Milan in the Champions League. They were already 2-0 up.
As the evening wore on, though, a strange thing happened. Rovers didn't concede any more goals.
Over the last two seasons, conceding three goals in the first 20 minutes would have led to losing by a cricket score by the final whistle.
Instead, with 25 minutes left, midfielder Craig Stanley grabbed his first goal for the club. 3-1.
Arsenal meanwhile were 3-0 up ... if they could pull off the impossible then we could certainly come back against the team lying bottom of the entire football league.
86 minutes gone ... and it's 3-2. Lee Brown capitalises after Chris Zebroski is brought down in the penalty area to hammer home the spot kick.
And then comes an agonising eight minutes or so, until the final score flashes up. Northampton 3, Bristol Rovers 2.
A bad night. But not as bad as it could have been.
And at least we can be proud of a team that is prepared to put up a fight - not surrender meekly in the face of adversity.
Still, we can't afford to repeat that early lapse in our next game - at home to promotion-chasing Torquay on Saturday.