The Future Now

The future of United now looks assured as the club and Thames Water have signed a deal at 10.00 this evening. Both Les Wells and Firoz Kassam warned that Thames Water signing the paperwork was critical to a deal being done. If the deal hadn't been signed the Council wouldn't have withdrawn from the legal action against Wells and allow the land deal to go ahead. If this hadn't happened today Kassam wouldn't have bought out Les Wells and therefore the Judicial Review would have gone ahead on Monday as originally planned. This in turn would almost certainly have meant Kassam withdrawing funding from the stadium and putting the club up for sale. The ridiculous thing about all of this is that the paperwork could have been ready for signing two weeks ago, but Council Officers failed to act. Now at last there should be no further obstacles to stadium completion and we can look forward to life in the Third next season, but from a reasonably posh three-sided stadium.

Cobblers tomorrow

United visit Northampton tomorrow with the same squad that lost at Cambridge, plus Phil Gray who has returned from international duty with Northern Ireland. David Kemp has stated that he intends to start with the same side which began against both Rotherham and Cambridge and it's possible that Peter Fear might also be in contention for a place on the bench, having recovered from the illness which allegedly prevented him from appearing for the reserves on Wednesday.

The match was originally deemed all-ticket, but that restriction was lifted yesterday after it was revealed that United had only sold around 600 of their 850 allocation for their first ever League visit to Sixfields. Although United can't mathematically be relegated tomorrow, probably having to wait until they face Bournemouth on Tuesday, the U's can still take a giant step further towards Division 3. Alternatively they could do the double over Northampton, having beaten them 3-1 at the Manor with Chris Hackett in sparkling form, but Rage Online confidently predicts a win for the home side to the tune of three goal to zero.

One player who won't be appearing for United again is Neil McGowan, who has left the club to return to Scotland. It is thought that he will join Stranraer. McGowan made 28 first team appearances for United and proved himself a capable left back, but hasn't figured in Kemp's plans despite being the only dedicated left back on the club's books.