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The Poppies looked to be heading for a fourth 0-0 draw in their last five Vanarama National League North games in a tight all-Northamptonshire clash at Latimer Park.

But Sheffield United loanee Frankie Maguire fired home an excellent low drive with just nine minutes remaining to end the Poppies’ goal drought, which lasted 441 minutes.

That proved to be enough to secure a crucial win and move Kettering four points clear of the relegation zone.

Lee Glover watches on during Kettering Town's 1-0 win over Brackley Town. Pictures by Peter Short

And Glover admitted he did take a bit of a gamble when he brought off midfielder Ethan Hill and replaced him with forward Decarrey Sheriff with a quarter-of-an-hour to go.

“Ethan was blowing a bit after not playing for a while and I put Decarrey on to give us a bit of width and get us a bit higher up the pitch,” the Poppies boss said.

“We were wary of making sure we didn’t lose if we couldn’t win but we wanted to try to win the game. I half-gambled, if you like.

“I thought our two full-backs (Ellis Myles and Rhys Sharpe) were very good. They have two wingers who can cause problems and I thought our two full-backs were excellent against them.

Decarrey Sheriff went close with this effort after coming on as a substitute

“Clean sheets are the backbone and it’s been key for us to reduce our goals against and we have done that since Christmas.

“When you are keeping clean sheets, you are always in the game.

“Frankie’s a young boy and when that’s dropping on the edge and he’s coming onto it, he’s got the technique to keep it down.

“It’s not easy on our pitch. It’s bobbly but he kept it down and it was a nice grasscutter into the bottom corner.”

Glover, meanwhile, admitted lessons learned from the Poppies’ 3-0 defeat at Brackley in November proved useful to him as he made four changes to his starting line-up following last Tuesday’s goalless draw with Farsley Celtic.

“We freshened it up,” he added.

“When we went to Brackley, they outnumbered us in midfield and dominated.

“I wrote down my notes after that game and kept it in my mind for the next time we played them.

“We had Frankie (Maguire) and Keaton (Ward) in there just a bit ahead of Fozzy (George Forsyth) and Gaz (Gary Stohrer) with Ethan (Hill).

“We wanted to get runners running off them rather than what they did to us.

“We tried to do that and it worked on occasions. It did enough to get us a foothold in the game.”

The Poppies are back on home soil again on Tuesday night when they host Curzon Ashton.

Glover pleased to see a ‘half gamble' pay off in Poppies’ win over Brackley