Northampton confirm signing of former Doncaster defender James Maxwell

Northampton Town have announced the signing of defender James Maxwell, with the defender joining the Cobblers after the expiry of his contract with Doncaster Rovers.

The 24-year-old has signed a two year deal to move from South Yorkshire to Sixfields, with Maxwell becoming the third new arrival ahead of the Cobblers’ return to League Two next season.

Maxwell left Doncaster at the end of the 2025/26 season, having spent four seasons with Rovers and helping Doncaster win promotion from League Two to League One in 2024/25 along the way.

The defender follows Harvey Saunders and Zack Jeacock in making moves to join Chris Hogg’s side as they prepare for next season.

In a statement, Cobblers boss Hogg said, “James is a player I am really excited to be working with.

“He has a good pedigree with nearly 200 senior games under his belt. He has already won promotion from this level and has had a fair amount of experience in League One as well and we feel we are signing him at a good age at 24.

“He is old enough to have had a decent amount of experience but he is young enough to have a lot of potential to improve further. Very importantly, he also has that hunger and desire to keep improving and we think we can help him with that.

“As a player, he is a solid defender who is aggressive and competitive, he wins his battles and he loves to get forward and he can carry the ball well.

“He was really keen to come and be part of what we are looking to do here and that stood out for us during our conversations. As we have said, and this is really important for us, we only want players here who want to be here and James made it very clear that he wants to be part of working to take Northampton Town forward.”