I feel the fans’ frustrations, says Poppies boss Glover

Lee Glover was far from impressed with Kettering Town's first-half performance as they were well beaten by Kidderminster Harriers at Latimer Park. Picture by Peter Short

The Poppies boss and his players came under fire after they turned in a poor first-half performance, which resulted in them being 3-0 down at half-time against Kidderminster Harriers at Latimer Park yesterday (Saturday).

There were no further goals in the second half with the damage being done in the opening period in what was Kettering’s first home game for nearly a month.

A crowd of 851 were on hand to watch the Poppies’ fifth defeat of the Vanarama National League North, which has left them in the bottom three after nine games.

Glover spoke with at least one fan immediately after the final whistle as he headed for the tunnel.

And when asked about it, the Poppies boss said: “They asked me why a certain player wasn’t playing so I went over and shook his hand and said the player he was asking about was injured.

“I have got to say I was in a real pressurised environment with my business a couple of months ago and the football pressure is different to that.

“I feel it and I feel the fans’ frustrations but the fact is that we didn’t have a squad a couple of months ago.

“We have tried to put a squad together and now we probably need an injection of fresh blood, which we are trying to do.

“There were 850 at the game which is great. Will there be another good attendance on Tuesday (against King’s Lynn Town at Latimer Park) and then at King’s Lynn next week? Yes, there will because we have some good supporters.

“We are going to do what’s necessary to try to bring players in but we have to understand that we are bouncing against teams here who are nowhere near where we are financially.

“Last year Kettering had a fantastic season and, consequently, out of a squad of 16, 14 left.

“I spoke to all of those players and made them offers to stay and I was 20 to 30 per cent lower than the other clubs. But I understand that. I’m not crying it in. That’s the situation.

“We have done an eight-game faze and now we start a new one and we obviously have to take more points from these eight.

“If I feel pressure, it’s only the pressure I put on myself to succeed.”

Glover was scathing about the way his team started the game as they found themselves 2-0 down within the first 18 minutes against a strong Kidderminster outfit.

“I thought we started really poorly and showed them too much respect,” he said.

“We had no aggression in the first half compared to what we have been doing.

“They have got players who will hurt you if you don’t close gaps and if you don’t do it right.

“We trained on Thursday, we looked at Kidderminster, we said how we wanted to do things and it took us 30 minutes before we did what we asked them to do.”