Robins fan and columnist Murry Toms takes a detailed look into our previous clashes with the Cobblers.
Cheltenham Town will this weekend travel to Northampton Town's Sixfields Stadium in search of only their fourth win at the 12th time of asking.The Robins are no strangers to the Sixfields Stadium, making no fewer than 11 trips to the 7,653 capacity, all seater stadium since joining the football elite back in 1999.
The Cobblers have won six of those meetings, winning four in succession before Mark Yates' men returned with a point two seasons ago, courtesy of Wesley Thomas's second half equaliser, to end a miserable series of visits.
Then last season Josh Low's winner ten minutes from time consigned Aidy Boothroyd's side to defeat and handed the Robins their first win at the arena since 2005.
The Robins had tasted victory only once up to that point, back in the 2002-03 campaign, when Julian Alsop and Richard Forsyth grabbed the goals to record a rare away success for then-manager Bobby Gould's side.
By the end of that season they had been demoted from the third tier of the Football League after only one season.
Kayode Odejayi recorded a brace in a notable win back in 2005, en route to play-off success at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium against Grimsby Town.
Mid-table Cobblers, placed 11th going into tomorrow's match, have performed pretty well at home this term, winning six of ten matches, scoring 19 and conceding eight.
An impressive string of results has recently been brought to a halt by Wednesday's Johnstone's Paint Trophy Southern Section quarter-final defeat by Leyton Orient, and the league loss at Oxford United's Kassam Stadium a fortnight ago.
That particular reverse was the only blemish in an otherwise unbeaten run throughout November, and prior to that you had to go back six weeks to the home match against high-flying Bradford City (0-1) for their last league loss. Despite the blip, they haven't found goals hard to come by.
Before that they had scored at least three goals in four of five contests and perhaps it's no surprise that old foe Adebayo Akinfenwa, the striker who's scored in this fixture on the last three occasions, comfortably heads the goalscoring charts with 12.
Meanwhile Cheltenham have had mixed fortunes on the road, winning three and drawing four of ten away matches this season.
Unfortunately from a Cheltenham perspective the last four trips away from the Abbey Business Stadium have yielded only one point in a tough sequence of matches against promotion hopefuls Chesterfield (1-4), Rotherham United (2-4), Gillingham (0-0) and Bradford City (1-2).
Tomorrow then is the opportunity to return to winning ways and consolodate third place in League Two, but Mark Yates' men will need to rediscover the formula that has already carried them to victory at AFC Wimbledon (2-1), Bristol Rovers (1-0) and Aldershot Town (1-0).
Head-to-head at Sixfields Stadium
August 20, 2011
Northampton 2 (Davies 39, Akinfenwa 51), Cheltenham 3 (Duffy 12 pen, 68; Low 80)
January 8, 2011 (League Two)
Northampton Town 1 (McKay 9), Cheltenham Town 1 (Thomas 48)
February 27, 2010 (League Two)
Northampton Town 2 (Akinfenwa 52, Harris 85), Cheltenham Town 1 (Watkins 78)
August 9, 2008 (League One)
Northampton Town 4 (Doig 42, Akinfenwa 64 pen, 68 pen, Constantine 77), Cheltenham Town 2 (Gyepes o.g. 35, Townsend 74 pen)
October 20, 2007 (League One)
Northampton Town 2 (Kirk 22, Gilligan 80), Cheltenham Town 1 (Spencer 50)
December 26, 2006 (League One)
Northampton Town 2 (McGleish 45, 74 pen), Cheltenham Town 0
September 24, 2005 (League Two)
Northampton Town 1 (Taylor 30), Cheltenham Town 2 (Odejayi 20, 45)
December 7, 2004 (League Two)
Northampton Town 1 (McGleish 62), Cheltenham Town 1 (Spencer 82)
December 28, 2003 (League Two)
Northampton Town 1 (Walker 10), Cheltenham Town 0
October 26, 2002 (League Two)
Northampton Town 1 (Forrester 24), Cheltenham Town 2 (Alsop 31, Forsyth 62)
November 11, 1999 (League Two)
Northampton Town 3 (Savage 25, Corazzin 45, Clare 87), Cheltenham Town 2 (McAuley 11, Grayson 83)
League positions
Northampton Town: 11th, 29 points
Cheltenham Town: 3rd, 35 points