Northampton end season with another defeat after eventful meeting with Plymouth

Northampton Town ended the season with an 11th straight defeat as they were beaten 3-2 by Plymouth Argyle despite holding an early two goal lead.

Goals by Elliott List and Michael Jacobs had given Colin Calderwood’s side a 2-0 lead with less than 20 minutes on the clock against a Plymouth side who arrived at Sixfields still hoping of making the play-offs.

Plymouth would get back on level terms before half-time through goals by Lorent Tolaj and Malachi Boateng, before the Cobblers had Conor McCarthy sent off and Argyle’s Brendan Wiredu completed the comeback for the visitors.

The visitors would nonetheless leave disappointed as they missed out on a play-off spot, while Northampton slunk off from the end of a troubled season with another defeat. The Cobblers finish the 2025/26 League One season last in the table, with Northampton ending the season 17 points from safety.

Plymouth had already spurned early opportunities when Bim Pepple was thwarted by Lee Burge before Owen Dale side footed a strike wide at the back post and Mathias Ross put an effort over the top.

With 13 minutes on the clock, however, Northampton would open the scoring. Jacobs’ pass released List, who was duly able to squeeze the shot home and put the hosts ahead.

Northampton then made it 2-0 five minutes later, as Jacobs fired home a crisp strike from just outside the box via the underside of the crossbar.

Plymouth would halve the deficit ten minutes later, as Tolaj saw a strike beat Burge via a deflection.

The visitors would then equalise with five minutes of the first half remaining, as Boateng received Tolaj’s flick from a corner Northampton didn’t properly clear and thumped the ball into the back of the net.

Having got back on level terms, Plymouth pressed to try to complete their comeback and keep up their hopes of making their way to the top 6. Ronan Curtis would see a hit denied by Burge, before the keeper kept out a strike by away sub Xavier Amaechi.

Northampton’s hopes of keeping Plymouth at bay then took a further dent when McCarthy got a second yellow card for catching Wiredu, and with that, the hosts were reduced to ten men.

Sam Hoskins made a good goalline block to deny Tolaj after Burge had kept out an initial strike from Wiredu as the visitors turned up the pressure.

A third goal for Plymouth then came after 74 minutes as Amaechi found Wiredu, who was able to beat Burge with a strike that went in via a deflection.

That goal lifted Plymouth into the play-off places with Stevenage and Luton at the time both drawing, but Plymouth’s hearts would be broken when the latter two got injury time winners to confirm Plymouth would finish 8th.

By contrast, Northampton struggled to create chances after falling 3-2 down and the referee duly brought the curtain down on a miserable campaign for the Cobblers, who will now look to rebuild in League Two next season.