NORTHAMPTON TOWN WHO’S WHO

By Frank Grande

ISBN 978-1-905891-78-8

Price: £20

A4-sized paperback, illustrated

More than 1,000 players have made a Football League appearance for Northampton Town up to the end of the 2012/13 season.  The book contains their detailed career records and accounts of their deeds (and occasional misdeeds!). Here for example is part of the entry for Frank Large:

B: Leeds, Yorkshire 26^th January 1940.    D: Louisburg, Ireland 8^th August 2003

Halifax Town (6.1959), Queen’s Park Rangers (6.1962), NORTHAMPTON TOWN (3.1963) Swindon Town (3.1964), Carlisle United (9.1964), Oldham Athletic (12.1965), NORTHAMPTON TOWN (12.1966), Leicester City (8.11.1967), Fulham (6.1968) NORTHAMPTON TOWN (21.8.1970), Chesterfield (24.11.1972), Kettering Town, Baltimore Comets (USA).

HONOURS: Division Three championship 1963 (NORTHAMPTON), 1965 (Carlisle United)

 When the Cobblers new signing Bert Llewellyn was carried off the field injured on his debut at the White City for Northampton v QPR, little did Frank, who was sitting in the stand watching the game, realise he was to be his replacement. He had joined Rangers from Halifax and struggled to hold down a regular place but it all changed at Northampton where he scored a hat-trick in his third game and scored a brace of goals v Carlisle that won Northampton the Third Division championship (he did the same for Carlisle two seasons later). He was allowed to leave for Swindon but when the Cobblers fell back into Division Two in 1966 Frank was signed again. He was happy at Northampton but Leicester City came in with an offer and it meant Frank could play First Division football for the first time at the age of 28. Whilst Frank went up the Cobblers went down and when they dropped back into Division Four Frank was signed again. By this time he was languishing in Fulham’s reserve side having been ‘makeweight’ in the Allan Clarke transfer. In his last spell at Northampton he saw near promotion, re-election, scored one of the club’s goals in Manchester United’s 8-2 victory and had a dismissal against him ruled out by the F.A. Bill Baxter released him in 1972, claiming his goals had dried up, so he moved to Chesterfield and scored 16 plus another 9 in America. Frank moved to Ireland, helping out on a salmon farm and in his wife’s B&B until his untimely death through cancer. One son Richard played and managed clubs from the Northants/North Bucks area while another, Paul, managed Westport in Ireland

Author Frank Grande has several books on the club and its players to his credit. He has been gathering together the material for this book for many years and is pleased to see it in print at last. 

The book is a large-sized sized paperback book of 180 pages with b/w illustrations and a full colour cover.  The price is £20.  Copies are available from sports booksellers and by post from Tony Brown.  If ordering by post, please send a cheque or postal order for £23 (which includes £3 for UK postage and packing), payable to Tony Brown, to 4 Adrian Close, Toton, Nottingham NG9 6FL.