Boss Leese gets ‘plenty out of it’ as Poppies open up with friendly win

That was Andy Leese’s verdict after Kettering Town’s pre-season friendly programme got under way with a 2-0 win at Newport Pagnell Town on Tuesday night.

Goals from captain Gary Stohrer and a second-half trialist sealed the win for the Poppies.

But new boss Leese insisted the result was “irrelevant” as he ran the rule over a number of trialists while also giving the likes of Stohrer, Sam Bennett, Lewis White, Rhys Sharpe, Tyrone Lewthwaite and summer signing Kelvin Langmead their first run-outs of the summer.

“The five or six who have stayed here have been excellent, they are standard-setters and they have embraced what we want to do,” the Kettering manager said.

“This was just our third session really. And it was an extended training session for us to have a look at people.

“It’s hard in training when you are working in small areas and now we have been in a proper game.

“The result is irrelevant. I just wanted to see some things and we got plenty out of it.”

Leese was also able to give game time to academy products Luca Miller, who has signed first-team forms with the club, and Josh Drain.

And the Poppies boss was impressed with what he saw from the young guns.

“The academy boys Josh Drain and Luca Miller were superb, I am really pleased with them,” he added.

“There have been a couple more who have been training who weren’t available for the game.

“But credit to Luke Graham and everyone at the academy for what they do.

“I think Luca didn’t quite get his geography of the pitch right to begin with but once he did, he was very good and neither him nor Josh looked out of place.”