Hollyhead unhappy as Kettering miss chance to go top as they are held by Worcester
Kettering Town boss Simon Hollyhead was 'very disappointed' with his team's performance as they toiled to a 1-1 draw at newly-promoted Worcester City on Saturday.
The Poppies missed the chance to go top of the Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central as they could only share the spoils in a scrappy encounter on the artificial pitch at the Sixways Stadium.
The home side, who beat Corby Town in the play-off final in May to go up, took the lead in the 43rd minute, only for the Poppies to respond straight from kick-off as Nile Ranger headed home to make it 1-1.
The second half failed to produce a winner for either side as Kettering, who saw striker Leon Lobjoit withdraw on the morning of the game and fellow front man Jamar Loza only able to play the closing stages due to illness, had to settle for a point.
And the manager was not pleased in the slightest.
"I am not very happy at all, as I didn't see enough of our quality and we need to get to the bottom of that," said Hollyhead.
"I expected more in this game and I expected us to perform a lot better than that.
"The gameplan was to win the game, we are Kettering Town, the supporters were magnificent again, and we have to reflect that. There were different things that didn't work, and the rhythm wasn't there.
"The pitch is the pitch, we are not looking to use excuses, and we have enough quality in that group to play better than we did on Saturday.
"We have shown enough in the previous six games that we do try and play, both in the build-up and into the mid and final thirds.
"And I just didn't see enough connections, I didn't see enough rhythm, and yeah we got some good opportunities, but there wasn't enough of that.
"I am very disappointed with the outcome. Our standards and performance levels have to be better."
The result leaves Kettering third in the table, one point adrift of top dogs Harborough Town who could only also draw 1-1 on Saturday in their home game with Halesowen.
The Poppies are back in league action on Tuesday night when they host fifth-placed Spalding United (ko 7.45pm), and Hollyhead is expecting an improvement.
"We have to set the team up for what we think is the right team for each game," said the Kettering boss.
"We now play on Tuesday night, it's at home, and I hope we repay the fans that travelled on Saturday with a better performance.
"We have to look at the things we have done well so far, but we also need to jump on the things that weren't evident on Saturday."
Interview by Peter Short