Cobblers to Christmas! NTFC First Team Ruin Fan's Christmas!

The Festive season can be a difficult time of year. The expense of gifts and food, the pressure of shopping and the expectations of the season can make Christmas an extremely stressful time. 

So spare a thought for Cobblers fanatic Sean Hardwick, who's yuletide plans went up in smoke after a chance encounter with Jon Brady's Shoe Army!

"I decided to try and get it all done early this year. I set out on Tuesday afternoon on a mission to ensure the wife and kids had a magical experience on the big day. I was really enjoying "playing Santa", the sleigh, in my case the Ford Focus, was loaded up with already wrapped presents and I was headed home when who should I see parked up at the side of the road looking stressed but Mitch Pinnock and Jon Guthrie!"

Sean didn't realise at the time but the next decision he would make would start a chain of events that would ruin his Christmas.

"As a loyal Cobbler home and away it would have been criminal of me not to pull over and see what was up."

"Jon explained the players were doing a visit to Northampton General Hospital Children's Ward to hand out gifts, but his gearbox had given up. It was the least I could do as an avid Cobbler to give the lads and their gifts a lift up to the Billing Road. Christmas was saved!"

"While the players and hospital staff were unloading the gifts in the carpark, I walked to the machine with Kieran Bowie." 

But unfortunately this Star-man didn't appear to be "Over the Moon".

"He'd visited a sick child who'd made him promise he'd get a hat trick at the upcoming  Boxing Day clash Vs Stevenage, but wasn't sure he'd be up to it without resorting to an old wive's tale. He told me of an old Scottish Hogemany tradition which apparently all the top strikers north of the border use. Dalglish, Ally McCoist, Denis Law, Graham Souness, they'd all sworn by it and banged in hat tricks as a result."

"For the tradition to work, during the yuletide period, the person involved has to down a bottle of whisky, smash a window and win a game of cards."

"We had no choice, a quick trip to the Pickering Phipps for the whisky and after  putting a brick through the window of the off license on Abington Square, it was a taxi to Aspers casino for KB and me! It took quite a few goes on the blackjack table and unfortunately Keiran didn't have his wallet so I had to pay, but the real winner on this occasion will be NTFC and more importantly, a sick child!"

But there was bad news for Sean..

"When I got back to the car I was devastated to see all the presents I'd bought the kids and wife were gone. There'd been a mix up and they'd been given out to the patients at the hospital too! Sam Sherring  was very apologetic, but I reassured him that everyone's human and these things happen, just like when the club's chief exec and secretary didn't notice a £10m loan disappear."

As a reward for Sean's kind hearted generosity, the lads invited him to the next stop on their travels, a soup kitchen for the hungry and homeless. Unfortunately when the NTFC 'Elf' squad got there they found due to a mix up the organisers hadn't turned up, but a queue of hungry people had...

"I had no option, The Balti king was just up the road. Unfortunately none of the player's debit cards were working so I paid the bill for all comers. It really was a magical case of come all ye faithful. 

I got so engrossed in feeding those less fortunate, the evening flew by and before I knew it I was the last one there. One or two of the people we had fed were unwell. Unfortunately when I realised what time it was and what a mess they'd made on the floor (pools of sick) I realised it was time I made a move. I had a family to get home to." 

"As I ran out the door a passing car pulled over and wound down the window asking if I wanted a lift. It was Sam Hoskins. I was thrilled to see him and said how sorry I was for shouting abuse at him and posting comments online about him having no end product for years. He didn't look happy but it wasn't anything to do with harmless terrace banter. He was wincing with a mysterious thigh strain and there was nothing the club's physios or the team at the hospital could do about it. The last thing the Shoe Army wants over the festive period is their top scorer out of action. As an enthusiastic Sunday league player in my day I'd had my fair share of injuries and I knew just the place where Sam could get this particular injury treated. Sensual Temptations Thai Massage."

"Unfortunately the first three massages Sam paid for on my Visa Debit card didn't do the trick but by the fourth he said he felt much better but had to go as Jon Brady had told the lads they were having an early morning training session." 

"And by the way he'd just had a phone call from Adam Moreton, who'd told him they'd also started giving out presents to patients on the other side of the hospital and had moved my car there but unfortunately Sean McWilliams had forgotten to put the handbreak on and it had been towed as it had rolled down the hill and was blocking the entrance to casualty."

"As I travelled home that evening I was totally overwhelmed by it all. Yes I'd helped the club I love, not to mention the sick and  homeless but aside from a warm feeling inside what did I have to show for it?"

"By the time I'd walked back to Southfields it was 3am. I was shattered. I'd lent Tyler Magloire my belt earlier in the evening as he was dressing up as Santa in a food bank's grotto so my trousers were falling down and Max Dyche had spilt chutney on them in the Indian. My wife was absolutely furious, she'd been looking at the online banking app on our joint account and wouldn't let me in. She was shouting that I'd ruined Christmas and said I needed to get out of hers and the kid's lives and started chucking all my belongings out the window."

Sean was in surprisingly optimistic mood when he spoke to us from his mum's spare room this morning.

"I asked the Mrs if she'd consider letting me move back in. She said when the new East Stand is completed. Up the Cobblers!"