Cobblers striker Akinfenwa says promotion more important than personal goals

Akinfenwa had scored 14 goals until December 9 but has only found the back of the net three times since, and his lack of firepower has been amplified by the team’s failure to score in its past four matches.

The 30-year-old’s most recent strike in Town colours was the equalising penalty he notched in a 1-1 draw at AFC Wimbledon on February 19.

Akinfenwa is comfortable with the drought, mainly because he is getting into the kind of goalscoring positions from which he hit the crossbar in Tuesday night’s 0-0 draw at Wycombe.

“We haven’t scored for four games and personally I couldn’t even tell you the last time I got a goal,” he said.

“I know we’ve got to get that right but we have to look at the positives. We were confident and strong at Wycombe and we’re creating chances, we’d be more worried if we weren’t doing that.

“I don’t know why I’m not scoring. All strikers go through spells where they don’t get goals and that’s where I’m at right now.

“You’ve got to keep putting yourself in there, which I am doing but I’m not really worried about myself on a personal level. I’m not too disappointed that my goals have dried up.

“If someone said we’d go up but that I wouldn’t score again this season then so be it. If the team does well, everybody does well.”

Akinfenwa and his team-mates are not calling time on achieving the goal of automatic promotion but there seems to be a tacit acceptance within the squad that this is now beyond them.

Whatever the method, the powerful striker is desperate to restore Northampton Town to the league one status they enjoyed when he first signed for them in January 2008.

“Mathematically it’s not impossible,” he said. “We’re four points off second but we need to keep an eye on a couple of other teams’ results.

“But we’ve pretty much secured our play-off place. I’ve been relegated with Northampton so I would like to get a promotion with the club.

“We’re still vibrant, we’re still bubbly and we’ll go again.”