Glover’s happy to see preparations pay off for Poppies in FA Cup win

Kettering Town manager Lee Glover. Picture by Peter Short

Lee Glover felt Kettering Town’s preparations were key as they picked up a welcome 4-1 victory at Barwell to secure a place in the third qualifying round of the Emirates FA Cup.

The Poppies fell behind to the Southern League Premier Central hosts in the first half but levelled through Brad Gascoigne just before half-time.

And then a 25-minute hat-trick from Decarrey Sheriff saw Kettering eventually pull away after the break but not before goalkeeper Cameron Gregory had made a brilliant penalty save from Brady Hickey when the Poppies were 2-1 up.

Glover and his players were able to convene at a hotel for a pre-match meeting and meal ahead of the tie before arriving at the ground in plenty of time, enough time for the manager to take a look at the game of cricket taking place next door to Barwell’s stadium.

And when his team finally clicked into gear, they booked their place in Tuesday’s draw with a bit of room to spare.

“The club did things right,” Glover said.

“I asked them if we could go for a pre-match at a hotel. They allowed us to do that.

“We had our meeting there, everything was done as a Football League club would do it and, for us, that’s good and it gave the lads a bit of a taste of how these things are done higher up.

“We had everyone together, we were able to plan and make sure the lads had eaten well. I think that helped us.”

As far as the game was concerned, Glover revealed his half-time message was for his players to just do things a bit quicker after a somewhat lacklustre opening 45 minutes.

“We started the game quite well and we were doing the things we wanted to do and had spoken about,” the Poppies boss added.

“The issue was that they got a goal and got a bit of momentum.

“I just said to the boys at half-time that they needed to do what they had been doing but do it a bit quicker and be more ruthless, especially in the final third.

“We have pace to burn so we needed to ask some questions but getting the goal right on half-time helped.

“Brad has had a good scoring rate from centre-half at his other clubs and heading that one made it a fair scoreline a half-time but I knew we could go up a level and we did.

“I am looking forward to watching the third goal back.

“Ethan (Hill) came on and the words we were saying to him were ‘when you get the ball in midfield, use the pace and clip it down the sides’.

“Keaton (Ward) has made a great run but then he’s had the composure to slide the ball into Decarrey who hasn’t waited, he’s got in the box and it’s a great finish.

“Decarrey has a threat. He needs to understand his role in the other side of the game and the positional stuff but how can I dig him out after getting a hat-trick?”

The Poppies’ four goals mean they have again overtaken Tottenham Hotspur as the all-time leading scorers in the FA Cup with 908 goals, compared to the Premier League giants’ tally of 906.