Cooke’s late, late show delivers damaging title blow to faltering Kettering Town

That 1-1 draw, along with other results going against the Poppies, has seen them drop to fourth in the table, three points off the leaders Bedford Town.

And once again it was Richard Lavery's side that shot themselves in the foot, producing just one shot on target all match and also giving away a needless corner so late into match.

The A43 derby is slowly becoming a much anticipated fixture, and on a glorious Lincolnshire day, the ingredients were there for a classic.

Instead what was served up was a meek affair with little goal action, errors galore not helped by a bobbly surface and howling wind, and plenty of interruptions from the officials.

However, one bright spark was the debut of Jamar Loza, who had an encouraging debut on the left of the pitch.

Within five minutes of the start he delivered a whipped cross that caused havoc in the Stamford box which only just evaded Wes York, but Jonny Edwards was able to get a shot of that was blocked.

Kicking against the wind, Kettering kept the ball down, utilising Loma's pace and it was his desire that led to the opening goal - getting to the byline before cutting in and setting up Aaron Powell who struck from inside the box to score his first goal for the club.

Not to dampen his joy, but the shot did need a wicked deflection off Jordon Cooke to wrong-foot Thomas Jackson.

Possession was shared between both sides for the remainder of the half, but no outstanding chances were created.

Jackson brilliantly came of his line to deny York who tried an audacious header right on the edge of the area, whilst Sam McLintock could not control in time to shoot into the now vacated net on 32 minutes.

At the other end, Dan Jezeph gratefully caught a number of wind-assisted long ball sent forward by Stamford, with Connor Bartle's fizzing effort going wide on 45 minutes their only notable attack of the half.

Loza had the first chance of the second half when he was played through on 53 minutes, but again Jackson was quick off his line to deny the debutant before he could get a shot away.

At the other end, Jezeph pulled off what would be the only goalbound save of the day - keeping Jack Duffy at bay bay with a strong parry to his left on 78 minutes with a follow up shot from substitute Kai Sanchez-Tonge blasted over the bar.

Having looked dangerous in the first half, Kettering returned to their timid ways for the second half with a lack of direction and wasted set-pieces when given the opportunity.

A rare corner and a chance to send in a dangerous cross with a strong wind, was instead taken short and immediately repelled much to the annoyance of the large travelling support.

Six minutes was shown on the stoppage time board and Kettering thought they had done enough sending the ball up field to towards Kai FIfield with the clock well into the red.

However, the ball came back into Kettering's half and Stamford won a 98th minute corner.

Up went Jackson to make it 11 Stamford bodies in the box and through the chaos, Cooke was able to leap just high enough to turn ball home.

The final celebrations from the Stamford fans, and especially the management, seemingly went on for an age - but Kettering fans know only too well the feeling of grabbing a late equaliser, having done so just the week before against AFC Telford.

With five games still to go and just a three-point gap to make up all is not lost for Kettering, especially with a favourable run in.

But currently they are neither entertaining or getting the results. It is time to take the handbrake off and try to play like champions.

That mission starts on Saturday at Latimer Park against relegation threatened Hitchin Town.