Glover backs 'hurting' Poppies players to bounce back against Chorley

Lee Glover wants his players to be 'hurting' after their 2-0 defeat at Gloucester City on Tuesday night - but the Kettering Town boss is still certain the team will bounce back and quickly put things right.
Lee Glover was left with plenty to ponder as he watched his Kettering Town team lose 2-0 at Gloucester City on Tuesday (Picture: Peter Short)Lee Glover was left with plenty to ponder as he watched his Kettering Town team lose 2-0 at Gloucester City on Tuesday (Picture: Peter Short)
Lee Glover was left with plenty to ponder as he watched his Kettering Town team lose 2-0 at Gloucester City on Tuesday (Picture: Peter Short)

Starting with Saturday's Latimer Park date with play-off hopefuls Chorley (ko 3pm).

Glover was unhappy with a poor performance in midweek at Gloucester, with the loss leaving the Poppies sitting just three points above the Vanarama National League North relegation places.

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With 10 games of the season to go, Kettering certainly still have work to do, but Glover is staying positive.

"My view is that the players should be hurting. They should be hurting after that performance," said the Poppies boss.

"That was nowhere near our standards, but we will be back on Saturday. We have to massively bounce back."

Asked about the teams below them closing the gap, Glover added: "I always spin it on to a positive, because I am always looking to do that, and we have got to keep our home form going.

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"But you do have to look at the league table and address it.

"Nobody could jump above us (on Tuesday), although people do have games in hand, and I look at it that if we get anything then we go into that cluster of teams on 44 points.

"So we are still in touch with them, and that is me trying to be positive.

"But all of that aside, we need to do more than we did on Tuesday. We’ll watch the game back with the lads and will try to come up with a plan for Saturday for Chorley."

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"We did really well for a good spell there, but on Tuesday night we went backwards to where we were and shouldnt be. That's not good enough.

"Luckily we have had a good run, but performances like that we can't have them.

"We need to bounce back on Saturday and we need to get back in the groove again."

The Poppies should be boosted by the return of loan pair Frankie Maguire and Jimmy Knowles for the weekend, the duo having sat out the trip to Gloucester.

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"I hope both of them will be back and available for selection on Saturday," revealed Glover.

"There was a problem in that both of them had niggles, and they went back to their parent clubs. Frankie had a bit of a knee issue, and Jimmy had a tight hamstring.

"We have got young boys that have come in and done a good job for us, but they are probably not used to men's football and playing Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday.

"They have done it for a week or two and are starting to feel the effects of it, so that is what happened.

"There was no way we could play them."

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Chorley arrive at Latimer Park off the back of a 2-0 midweek win over Hereford, who were 1-0 winners against the Poppies last Saturday.

The north west side currently sit in the final play-off place in seventh.