 | |||
| Luca Miller celebrates his goal that made it 1-1 |
NORTHAMPTON TOWN 1 KETTERING TOWN 2 (AET)
Kettering Town recorded one of their biggest results in the clubs history and one of the FA Cups biggest ever shocks yesterday dumping League one county rivals Northampton Town out of the FA Cup on their own patch. The Cobblers sat 80 places and four divisions above The part-time Poppies but in the end Richard Lavery's side recorded a deserved and pretty comfortable victory.
Kettering made two changes to the side that defeated Stourbridge ten days ago. Bruno Andrade replaced Luca Miller who dropped to the bench and Nile Ranger came in for the cup-tied Jonny Edwards. There was a nine man bench for the match which saw Kai Fifield, Wes York and Dan Jarvis returning from injury and also the surprising return of Marvin Sordell who hadn't been involved in any games since a brief substitute appearance against Stamford in September.
The 1400 Kettering fans were in good voice well before Kick-Off and that continued throughout the whole match. They showed wonderful vocal support for the players, out singing a very quiet and poor home support. There was a minute's silence before kick-off in respect to all those that had given their lives for their county.
The Cobblers had the better of the first 45 minutes. Kettering seemed to let the occasion get the better of them, giving away possession and standing off the Cobblers players. The Poppies had a real let off on 15 minutes when Cameron McGeehan had the ball in the Poppies net but the goal was ruled out for a tight offside. I must admit having now seen TV Replay's the goal did look onside.
Kettering then had a very good chance to go ahead when Tyree Wilson caused confusion in The Cobblers defence and after a scramble in the penalty area Nile Ringer fired just wide of the post. Northampton took the lead on 28 minutes with a very fortunate goal, Tariqe Fosu hit a shot that was going wide but the ball deflected off Lewis White onto the wrong footed Connor Johnson and into the net. The other chance of the half saw Dan Jezeph save well from a Liam McCarron shot.
Whatever Richard Lavery said to his players at half-time definitely seemed to work as The Poppies came out and were now getting in and around the Northampton players and keeping the ball better. On 54 minutes Northampton had a chance to extend their lead when McCarron fired over with just Jezeph to beat and that was Northampton's last real chance of the match. Ben Hart then met a Andrade cross and his low header was pushed away by the keeper.
There was a feel the match was turning in The Poppies favour and on 61 minutes Lavery switched to a 3-5-2 formation and brought on Luca Miller and Gary Hooper for a tired looking Isiah Noel-Williams and Bruno Andrade. The changes worked almost straight away as just five minutes later Andi Thanoj found Ben Hart who put over a superb cross and from 10 yards out local boy Luca Miller rose to plant a superb header past Nik Tzanev and into the top corner of the net to send the away end into bedlam.
Cobblers boss Jon Brady acted almost straight away bringing on three subs but Kettering still looked the better side and in truth you would think they were the league side. The match was end to end but there were no real chances of note and the 90 minutes finished 1-1. With no replays in the FA Cup now there would be 30 minutes extra time.
The first period of extra-time began and after two minutes the Poppies won the first corner of the extra 30 minutes. Luca Miller delivered the corner that found Nile Ranger who had jumped well above his marker and his header crashed into the back of the net to give The Poppies a deserved lead. Five minutes later the tiring Ranger was replaced by Marvin Sordell. Kettering reached half-time of extra-time still with the lead.
In the second period of Extra-Time Northampton pushed defender Jon Guthrie up front and began to play direct balls up to him. But Poppies centre-backs Connor Johnson and Lewis White dealt with it well and when they were beaten Dan Jezeph was off his line confidently to gather the ball. With four minutes to play Devon Kelly-Evans sent Marvin Sordell clear on goal but he was halted when defender Tyler Magloire brought him down from behind. Everyone was expecting to see the red card come out but somehow referee Elliot Bell, who made some other questionable decisions only showed a yellow.
The full-time whistle was blown and Kettering deservedly won the game and the supporters, players, staff and offcials all enjoyed the moment with each other. The Poppies had done it and many Poppies supporters viewed this as the club's greatest FA Cup victory.
Now everyone will be tuned in to see who we draw in the Second Round.
Kettering Team: Jezeph, Hart, Powell, Kelly-Evans, Johnson, White, Andrade (Sub Hooper), Thanoj (Sub Stohrer), Ranger (Sub Sordell), Noel-Williams (Sub Miller),Wilson (Sub York)
Subs (Not Used) - Alexander, Jarvis, Embayo, Fifield
Bookins: Johnson, Powell
Att: 7104 (1460 Kettering Supporters)
Emirates FA Cup Man Of The Match (Selected by Matt Upson) - Devon Kelly-Evans
#UTP Kettering Town Man Of The Match - Connor Johnson
No comments:
Post a Comment