Poor Poppies struggle to make a point

 

Sub Wes York looks on as his late effort is superbly saved by Dan Platt

KETTERING TOWN 0 HALESOWEN TOWN 0

So another important match for Kettering Town in the Southern League Premier Division promotion race as fellow hopefuls Halesowen Town made the trip to Latimer Park. The Poppies sat In third place in the table only above The Yeltz, who sat in fourth place on goal difference. But It was far from a classic match with little real goalmouth action with both sides looking more interested in not losing than going out to gain all three points. And that was probably a good thing for Kettering who put In one of their poorest performances of the season because had Halesowen really wanted to Kettering were in truth there for the taking.

The attendance was pretty poor for a top of the table clash, just four short of 1000. Poppies poor form of late seems to have lost the 200 or so "floaters" than stuck with us after the cup run and Halesowen who normally travel well brought around 100 with them, good numbers for this league but not as many as had been expected. I have to admit I don't mind Halesowen at all, Will never forget the way they treated us when we won the league there and it's always a place you are made to feel welcome. And their supporters are always friendly whenever we meet.

Team news for Kettering, Ben Hart passed a late fitness test after he went off with a nasty looking ankle injury at Bedford but Jonny Edwards who was originally named on the substitutes bench pulled up in the warm up and was replaced by Kai Fifield. Both Sam McLintock and Kyle Storer came in for their first start for the club. We started with five central midfielders and in truth it showed all game as the lack of width was evident from the first minute of the game. In his after match interview Lav's said that a couple of our wide players (Pennant & Wilson) were not fully fit with illness/injury but myself I think a 3-5-2 formation (a formation we have played a few times this season) would have been better and given us the width we didn't have, certainly more than playing five central midfielders anyway.

On to the game itself, first half Halesowen had more of the ball without really hurting us whilst we reverted to a long ball game that saw us just keep giving the ball away. Nile Ranger, another who wasn't fully 100% with illness was struggling to hold the ball up allowing Halesowen to keep coming back at us. But the visitors only really made one clear cut chance in the half when their leading scorer Kieran Donnelly rattled the bar with a header. The best the Poppies could manage was an effort from a tight angle by Ben Hart that found the side netting when a pull back to waiting team mates was probably the better option.

Second half The Poppies were a bit better and like the first half Halesowen had a lot of the ball but didn't create much as Kettering were defending well in particular captain Connor Johnson who was rightly named man of the match and again showed why he's one of if not the best centre backs in the division. Kettering kept up the trend of giving the ball away far to much just like the first half. A winger was needed from the bench to give us width, and on 72 minutes one came on. But Wes York replaced Ranger and played as a striker!

Then as the game entered the final ten minutes both sides had wonderful chances to take all three points when both keepers were called into making their only real saves of the game, and what two saves they were. Firstly Jezeph showed superb reactions to turn the ball away from an unmarked header six yards out and as the clock hit 90 minutes Halesowen's Dan Platt somehow got a touch on Wes York's goal bound effort and tipped in onto the outside of the post.

So 0-0 was the final score, Maybe a point gained by The Poppies given how poor they were but then again was it two points lost as If you want promotion you have to win your home games and that is something Kettering have failed to do at home to Bedford, Stratford and now Halesowen. I'm sure The Yeltz were delighted with a point, In fact Platt's reaction at full-time (You would have thought his team had just won 3-0 at Anfield) backs that up. But had they really wanted to get at Kettering the three points were their for the taking.

The games don't get any easier for The Poppies with a trip to one of the divisions form sides Leiston on Saturday and defeat there would see Leiston draw level on points with Kettering. To get anything Saturday the performance will have to be much, much better. Off our recent form I unfortunately think the title is going to be beyond us and where we were at Christmas that is a disappointment but we have to try and find form to not just only secure a play-off place, but to get home advantage in them.

Kettering Town Team

1.Dan Jezeph

2.Ben Hart

3.Aaron Powell

4.Devon Kelly-Evans

5.Connor Johnson

6.Alex Gudger

8.Andi Thanoj

9.Nile Ranger (Sub Wes York 72)

14.Sam McLintock (Sub Terrell Pennant 85)

15.Kyle Storer

16.Isiah Noel-Williams   

Subs: (not used) - Tyree Wilson, Lewis White, Kai Field

Poppies Man of The Match - Connor Johnson

Att: 996