Yussuf at the double again as on-song Kettering Town make it five wins out of five

Kettering Town are only going one way in the Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central at the moment.

Saturday's 2-1 win over Leicestershire side Barwell was their fifth league win in a row, taking the Poppies to the almost heady heights of 14th in the table.

And in front of a large Easter crowd of 857, a majority of those in attendance wish the season had longer to go.

Kettering started the brightest and were awarded a penalty after nine minutes when captain George Forsyth was clattered to the ground by keeper William Brook.

Adi Yussuf took on the responsibility but his poor spot kick to the left after failing to bluff Brook was well saved.

However the striker did redeem himself eight minutes later - a cross coming from the left hand side across the face of goal evaded all of the green shirts in the area allowing Yussuf to flick in from five yards out.

The hosts flooded forward on a number of occassions but Forsyth, Rhys Sharp and Dan Jarvis efforts came to no avail.

Barwell went on to punish Kettering on 39 minutes via a set-piece, with the ball falling outside the area for Deen Masters to take a touch a lash home.

Kettering deservedly retook the lead on 56 minutes when Yussuf showed great endeavor after his vicious shot was first saved by Brook in the Barwell goal but looped up allowing Yussuf to run towards the goal line and nod home.

From then on it was a case of holding on with the visitors bombarding the Kettering box with Brad Hickey forcing Arlo Doherty to tip over on 78 minutes and Kamson Kamara blasting over minutes later.

After the match, manager Richard Lavery was quick to deflect the praise onto his players.

"Having been a player I know that they're finding it hard out there, but with someone like me on the sidelines to give them an extra five or 10 per cent they're gonna buy into it and since I've come the lads have all bought into it,” he said.

"It's the same team there since I come bar one or two players but I've got an extra 20, 30 per cent out of them - credit to the lads, I'm not going to take any of the plaudits."

When asked about the consistency in the starting XI, Lavery admitted it was both a blessing and a curse.

"I know for the subs it's hard, but when you're winning it's difficult to change things,” said the Poppies boss.

"It's good for the manager because you want to keep the same team but the subs will get frustrated but it might change on Monday because we've got a few knocks in there - the people coming from the outside are good enough, they wouldn't be here if they weren't."

Bank Holiday Monday sees the Poppies travelling to Stratford to see if the Poppies can make it six wins on the spin.