Frustration for Poppies as 10-man Stratford Town claim share of the spoils

Richard Lavery was not impressed by his side's inability to defend against league hot-shot Callum Ebanks, or the route-one tactics employed by the Poppies in a frantic second half which delighted the neutrals in attendance, but only added to the grey hairs for both management and fans!

Both Stratford and Kettering traded early chances - Ebanks rounding keeper Dan Jezeph but the ball ran away from him before he could turn home on four minutes. Devon Kelly-Evans and Ben Hart both shot wide minutes later.

Gary Stohrer opened the scoring on 13 minutes with just his ninth goal for the club in 249 appearances.

His header from a Hart free kick on the edge of the area came off the post before being deflected in from an Orange shirt.

Jacob Weaver then pulled off the first of several excellent saves to keep Kettering out when Jonny Edwards' bullet header was kept out low to the keeper's left on 24 minutes.

Kettering continued to put the foot on the gas and seemingly had the points in their grasp on 38 minutes.

Tyree Wilson, who had been a handful all game, burst into the area towards goal and was brought down by a clumsy but not reckless challenge by Finley Brennan.

But referee Luke Bowles had no choice but to show a straight red to the defender giving the visitors a huge advantage.

But the resulting spot kick was kept out by Weaver diving to his left when Edwards tried to be too cute and pass the ball into the corner.

Now galvanised and with a straight-forward plan of catching Kettering on the break, Stratford did just that and equalised two minutes after the penalty miss.

A long ball down the right fell into the path of Ebanks who breezed past two white shirt before chipping into the roof of the net past Jezeph.

Ebanks played through Dan Lafferty who blazed his effort centimeters over the bar just before the halftime whistle - a relief for a now scrambled Poppies side.

Lewis White drilled home the ball from the edge of the area four minutes after the restart to calm the nerves of the travelling fans.

But again Kettering couldn't seize the moment and were undone by Stratford on the hour mark.

Stohrer allowed the ball to bounce on the halfway line and was beaten to the ball which was launched forward towards Owen James who saw off the two Kettering defenders surrounding him and deftly lobbed Jezeph who was stranded on the edge of the area.

Another counter attack inexplicably gave the hosts the lead when the brilliant Ebanks was again given too much space on the right before cutting in and striking low in the net from a tight angle on 72 minutes.

Weaver was then the busier of the two keepers first denying Nile Ranger, then Wes York with an incredible double save before Callum Powell reopened his account for the Poppies by lashing home the second rebound inside the area on 78 minutes.

Powell thought he had made it 4-3 minutes later when one-on-one with the keeper but his half shot trickled towards the line and was eventually turned in by Kai Fifield who was adjudged to have been in an offside position.

Despite throwing everything into the Stratford box Kettering couldn't find another effort on target.

And with news coming through that Halesowen had lost and Telford could only draw to lowly Hitchin Town, a frustrated aura replaced the Warwickshire fog as another opportunity to leap further ahead in the table wasn't taken.

They did however extend their lead at the top to five points, with an exciting local derby at Harborough Town on New Year’s Day coming up.