Boss Leese in 'stick with us' plea to Poppies fans ahead of huge FA Cup clash

Boss Andy Leese has made a plea to the Kettering Town fans to stick with his inconsistent team and to travel in numbers to Saturday's huge FA Cup fourth qualifying round tie at Chesterfield.

The Poppies manager was left furious with his players at the weekend as they were beaten 3-2 at fellow Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central side St Ives Town to crash out of the FA Trophy.

Kettering were 3-0 down after 51 minutes, conceding three times in a nightmare 13-minute spell either side of half-time.

And although they brought the score back to 3-2 with 20 minutes remaining through goals from Tyrone Lewthwaite and Sam Bennett, they could not find an equaliser.

The Poppies' miserable afternoon was complete when Luca Purse was red-carded in stoppage time.

A week on from the superb performance at Hitchin that saw them win 1-0 and book their FA Cup trip to National League leaders Chesterfield, the Poppies once again, as they have done on too many occasions this season, failed to show up.

A seething Leese branded the performance as being 'nothing short of disgraceful', and bemoaned 'the lack of desire, the lack of work and the lack of passion' shown by his players.

The Kettering boss felt some of his players at St Ives were 'trying to protect themselves' ahead of the date with Spireites, something he admits is 'not acceptable'.

But he has urged the club's support to still travel to Derbyshire in their numbers to back the team on Saturday.

"We are looking forward to it in terms of the kind of day it is, and the game it is, but rest assured we have got a lot of work to do before that game," Leese told the Kettering Town FC YouTube channel.

"We will have two long, hard sessions to put it right, and we will understand what Chesterfield are all about.

"Let's hope people don't turn their backs on us after Saturday, and they come back and give us some support at Chesterfield.

"It really is a big day for us, and we are not going there just to enjoy it.

"We are going there to try and do what we can to get something out of the game, but I recognise again that it will have to be 100 times better than it was at the weekend."

Leese and the Poppies will travel north without an assistant manager after it was announced Steve Bateman had left the club on Wednesday night.