SO did Stuart Gray pull a fast one?

That’s one possible conclusion over the mystery of the alleged newspaper article the Northampton manager used to gee up his players before Saturday’s 3-0 League I win over Town at Sixfields.

Cobblers midfielder Brad Johnson revealed: “The gaffer told us their manager (Andy Ritchie) had said we were favourites to go down – and we weren’t happy with it.

“What he said just made us want to win even more.

“It put a bit of fire in our bellies and it made us want to go out there and stuff it in his face.”

But Ritchie, who was taunted by home fans in a 5,014 crowd after their team had gone three up, said he had no knowledge of any such article, insisting he hadn’t made any pre-season predictions on relegation.

Attempts to trace the supposed comments have drawn a blank – and those who deal regularly with the Galpharm chief know it’s not his style to criticise other clubs.

Gray, meanwhile, admitted he had not seen the piece personally.

“Jim Barron (one of the Northampton coaching team) read an article – and I thought it was unusual because this job is hard enough – where their manager had tipped us to go down,” said Gray.

“I’ve not seen it personally and I don’t know if that inspired us, but we wanted to put on a show for our fans and maybe it did give the boys a bit of an edge.

“But I always knew we would give Huddersfield a good game and that’s what happened.”

Ritchie added: “Perhaps Stuart was playing mind games, although from the way they played in the second half, he didn’t need to.”