Poppies and Brakes ready to play it again

The Poppies were on the back of two wins in a row when they made the short trip to the Evo-Stik Southern League Premier Division title-chasers in the middle of January.

Kettering were leading 1-0 thanks to a Nathan Hicks penalty in the first half when the match was abandoned due to a floodlight failure.

The Poppies were beaten 3-1 at home by Merthyr Town in their next game and that proved to be the hammer blow to their hopes of claiming a play-off place.

Kettering’s inconsistent form has continued and they are now well out of the top-five race while the second-placed Brakes have gone from strength-to-strength and this evening’s clash is one of their two games in hand on leaders Chippenham Town who hold a seven-point advantage at the top.

The Poppies go into the clash on the back of two successive defeats, including the 3-2 loss at Weymouth at the weekend.

But assistant-manager John Ramshaw believes his team are capable of putting a dent in Leamington’s title hopes, if they perform like they did in the first half on Saturday.

“It has been a reversal of fortunes since the original game because they were going through a bit of a slump at the time,” Ramshaw said.

“But they are right back on track and, of course, we are heading into it on the back of two defeats.

“I just hope someone brings enough to put into the electricity meter this time!

“We did feel hard done by last time because we played particularly well in the first half of that game and it was no fluke that we were leading.

“But I hope the players remember the first-half performance they put in on Saturday as well because it was good.

“If they can play like that for the whole 90 minutes then they will definitely be in with a chance of getting a result.”