Ian Sampson has been handed the Northampton Town manager's job until the end of the season with a simple remit from Chairman David Cardoza.

"If he gets us promoted or to the Play-Offs he's guaranteed another season," said Cardoza. Simple, but quite a challenge with the relegated Cobblers lying 19th in the Coca-Cola League 2 table after a quarter of the campaign.

Former club captain Sampson is happy to take on the challenge, however, and after four weeks in charge as Caretaker Manager he is stepping into his first job as a permanent team boss with a positive mindset.

As he looked ahead to attempting to wipe out the current nine-point gap between the Cobblers and the Play-Off places, the 40-year-old ex-central defender said: "You've got to put yourself in those pressure situations.

"If we do okay then he (Cardoza) will extend my contract, so it's down to me and the players. The first thing we have to do is get out of the position we're in at the moment, but in the long term the aim is promotion."

Sampson's caretaker stint was his second at the club after being in temporary charge between the December 2006 departure of John Gorman and the January 2007 arrival of Stuart Gray, the latter having subsequently left Sixfields last month.

"When I took over that first time," recalled Sampson, "I really wanted the job then. But looking back, I think the Chairman probably made the right decision and got someone else in because I don't think I was quite ready.

"I got reasonable results in the few games I had in charge and I got a good reaction from the players, but from a personal development point of view I was probably better off staying as a number two.

"I've now had two and a half years more experience, that's stood me in good stead and I'm definitely better prepared."

As a former fans favourite during his 10 years with the Cobblers, for whom he played more than 400 games before his 2004 retirement, Sampson will get firm backing from the terraces as he looks to guide his side back to League 1 at the first attempt.

But he is a realist who knows only too well the truth of that increasingly used phrase in the game, 'football is a results business.'

"Every Manager gets a honeymoon spell," he noted, "and mine might be extended a bit because I was well liked as a player. But it's results that count at the end of the day, and fans want to see their team winning no matter who's in charge.

"It was so disappointing to go down last season after being in League 1 for three years, the longest we've stayed in that division for quite a while.

"We've come to see ourselves more as a League 1 club now, but at the moment we're a League 2 club - and that has to be addressed quickly."

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