Boss Lavery unhappy as controversial late penalty call costs Poppies win over Harborough

Yet again the Poppies wilted in front a big home crowd, as 1,596 came through the turnstiles for a rare local clash against the newly promoted Bees.

Some will of course will have taken the opportunity with no Premier League or EFL fixtures played. But no doubt that the recent upturn in form and a new brand of exciting football will have brought some of the floating supporters back to Latimer Park.

And at half-time, Kettering looked to be rewarding the fine support, leading through a Connor Johnson goal.

However, a culmination of tired legs, a threadbare squad, Harborough's never say die attitude and a questionable decision on the 90-minute mark meant that few left the ground entirely happy.

After a 10-minute delay to allow fans to take their positions, it was local hero and former Harborough Town loanee Luca Miller with the first real chance on six minutes - latching onto a loose ball but unable to find the necessary power on his shot.

Harborough replied almost immediately through a Luis Rose cross into the area but Kai Sanchez-Tounge was narrowly beaten to the ball by Devon Kelly-Evans.

The Poppies enjoyed the majority of the first half with Kai Fifield stinging the hands of Elliott Taylor on 25 minutes and Kelly-Evans shooting just wide four minutes later.

Finally a chance was taken by the hosts.

An initial corner was cleared by the visitors on 38 minutes but Kelly-Evans collected the clearance and whipped in a cross which wasn't cleared by those in yellow shirts, allowing Johnson to crash the ball home from 18 yards out.

Kettering kept up their dominance early in the second half.

Dan Jarvis would like another go at his free-kick from 25 yards out - sending it sky high on 48 minutes.

Wes York came closest to grabbing a second on 56 minutes when he received the ball from Noel-Williams and connected well with his header that was saved at point-blank range by Taylor. The same striker was given another chance eight minutes later but could only fire wide of the target.

As the game descended into game management and the usual antics expected from a local derby, Harborough began to believe they could get something from the match.

The aerial presence of substitutes Tendal Daire and Daniel Forbes was causing problems for the Kettering defence.

It was another former Poppy with the first attempt on goal for the visitors - Ben Stephen's curling freekick needed a smart save from Dan Jezeph to be tipped over the bar on 85 minutes.

With a win just minutes away, Kettering gifted their opponents a lifeline - although many in the ground will continue to debate the decision.

Referee Lewis Mountain adjudged Kelly-Evans to handle to ball inside the area, although to most eyes he was outside of the box with both arms by his side.

Regardless, Daire was cool enough to step up to the mark and send Jezeph the wrong way on the 90th minute, creating a frenzy amongst the travelling support.

Stephens very nearly turned the afternoon completely sour for the home side, but his curling effort five minutes into stoppage time went just over the bar.

Speaking to Kettering Town social media Richard Lavery said: "It definitely wasn't a classic was it? Am I happy? No. I don't like to talk about referees but that was nowhere near a penalty - not even in the box, not handball. I'll watch it back but that's killed us at 1-0.

"It was well-contested game with limited chances. It feels like a loss in there (the changing room) when you draw late on. I'm a bit disappointed for the fans that turned up today - we wanted three points for them.

"I was quite limited on the bench - I had a couple of key players missing today and we were probably down to the bare bones but I'm not going to make excuses. I have got to strengthen the squad in the next week or two and I will be."