Match Preview – Sleaford Town v Northampton O.N. Chenecks, 6 September 2025

The Greens will step away from league action this weekend to face Northampton Old Northamptonian Chenecks in the United Counties League Development Cup.

Sleaford will be looking to right the wrongs of previous cup failure this season in the FA Vase, as a win at Eslaforde park on Saturday would see them advance from the preliminary round. They face a Northampton ON Chenecks team pushing for the playoffs in step five, in the UCL Premier Division South.

The visitors were founded in 1919 as a sports club in memorial to the 94 members of staff, students and leavers of the Northampton Grammar School who had tragically died in the First World War. The football section was founded after the Second World War in 1946 as simply “Chenecks FC”. The name was derived from the School’s ‘houses’, following the format of Chipseys, Spencer, Beckett and St Crispins. Rather incredibly, The Chens have been members of the United Counties League for over fifty years, first joining in 1969. They have only spent two years outside of the UCL setup since, spending two years at step six in the Spartan South Midlands League Div One, before being promoted oncemore.

This season, the visitors have started fairly well, as they find themselves eighth in the table, and one point outside the playoff positions. They have already beaten the likes of Newport Pagnell, Oadby and Atherstone, as well as Rushden & Diamonds in the Northamptonshire Cup.

It certainly feels as if Northampton could be one of the toughest tests for Matt Evans’s Green Army this season. Club captain Jonathan Timmins certainly agrees with the statement; “We are expecting the toughest game of the season” he says, “I think Retford are as close as you can get in our league to step five opposition and I thought we held our own really well in that game until the unfortunate moment with Dobbo in the first half. In that game, although the result was not as we had hoped, we still scored two goals so we know we will give it a good go this weekend”.

Ahead of a new challenge in a new competition, the skipper believes it is a good chance for Town to showcase themselves; “It’s an opportunity for us to test ourselves against higher league opposition in a good step five side”.

“In terms of setting goals, we will be really focused on trying to put in our best performance that we possibly can and hopefully that will enable us to go as far as we can in the competition”.

Jono also believes this competition could provide a platform to improve in the league; “A positive performance is exactly the reaction we want following last week’s results” he adds, “We have worked hard in training recently on how we want to play moving forwards so hopefully we see a bit more of that come Saturday”.

The appropriate details for the fixture are available on Sleaford Town FC’s relevant social media sites.

Written by Oliver Burton