A year with Lavs

 

Richard Lavery and Tom Cherry arrived at Latimer Park a year ago today

Today marks a year since Richard Lavery took charge of his first match as manager of Kettering Town. Lavs and his assistant Tom Cherry oversaw their first match in charge in a 0-0 draw at Latimer Park versus Leamington.

When Lavery arrived from Quorn just the day before the Leamington fixture The Poppies were deep inside a relegation battle and a second successive relegation looked a real possibility. But from that first game Lav's seem to install a much needed togetherness and high work rate into the squad. The management team steered Kettering well away from the relegation zone and finishing the season in 15th place.

Lav's basically rebuilt the whole Kettering squad in the summer and has turned The Poppies into genuine title contenders as a year to the day since he took over his side sit 3rd in the Southern League Premier Division central table, three points behind leaders Bedford Town but with four games in hand over The Eagles and games in hand on all the other teams in the top ten places in the division.

Here is a look at the first team Lavery picked on the 17th February 2024 v Leamington 

Dan Jezeph

Harry Reilly

Lewis White

Kelvin Langmead

Lathaniel Rowe-Turner

Rhys Sharpe

Dan Jarvis

Huw Dawson

George Forsyth

Michael Reindorf Jnr

Bruno Andrade

Subs: Luca Miller, Ben Toseland, Tom Scott, Jack Degruchy, Kobe Chong

Richard Lavery's record in his first year as Poppies Boss (All Comps)

Played - 48

Won - 27

Drawn - 8

Lost - 13

Goals For - 80

Goals Against - 52

Win Percentage - 64.58%