Hollyhead frustrated as shot-shy Kettering pay 'heavy price' with Stamford delivering late hammer blow
Frustrated boss Simon Hollyhead admitted his Kettering Town paid 'a heavy price' for not being ruthless in front of goal as they conceded a last-gasp equaliser to draw 1-1 with 10-man Stamford on Tuesday night.
It was a bad night for the Poppies who looked to be heading for three precious points as they led 1-0 going into the dying seconds thanks a Callum Powell's long-range strike on 77 minutes.
That goal came 15 minutes after Stamford goalkeeper Tom Jackson had been red-carded, leaving the visitors down to 10 men and with an outfield player in goal for the final 30 minutes-plus.
But the Poppies failed to take full advantage, and it was the visitors who were celebrating as Kai Sanchez-Tonge prodded home from close range seven minutes into stoppage time to steal a point.
The draw means Kettering stay second in the Premier Central table, but they are now four points adrift of leaders Harborough Town.
"The bottom line is we weren't ruthless enough in and around the box," Hollyhead told Kettering Town's YouTube channel.
"At the end we have paid a pretty heavy price, and of course all focus will be on the 97th minute, but I think we had enough opportunities and situations to have added to our goal tally before that.
"We had enough quality on the pitch, and we had enough opportunities to have more box action, and when we did have the box action we weren't ruthless enough. We know that 1-0 is a very danerous scoreline, and it is incredibly frustrating.
"Sometimes, if you don't have the opportunities, then you can step back and say we didn't deserve to win, but in this game we didn't deserve it because we didn't take our chances.
"We simply weren't ruthless enough, but fair play to Stamford, they worked really hard and got as compact as they could, but they gave us the wide areas, and I didn't see enough come from those wide areas.
"We talked about delivery into the box, and we just didn't see enough quality.
"We started with eight attacking players on the pitch, so we have to take a step back and think to ourselves, with that attacking intent, were we actually showing the right conviction given the players we had out there. At times we should have done better."
This weekend is FA Cup weekend, and with the Poppies having been eliminated they are now without a game until October 4 when they go to St Ives Town in the FA Trophy.