Injuries still the big issue for Poppies boss Glover

The Poppies’ injury crisis is showing few signs of easing up and things might have got even worse after Decarrey Sheriff had to be withdrawn during Tuesday’s 2-1 victory at Daventry Town in the quarter-finals of the NFA Hillier Senior Cup.

Kettering already have the likes of goalkeeper Cameron Gregory, Harry Reilly and Rhys Sharpe on the sidelines and on-loan Mansfield Town defender George Cooper was a late withdrawal ahead of last weekend’s 5-0 defeat at Scarborough Athletic after he suffered a hamstring injury in training.

Brad Gascoigne has been playing with a knock and Sam Bennett also suffered a knee injury at Scarborough Athletic.

Boss Lee Glover signed goalkeeper Harrison Foulkes on loan from Derby County late last week to step in for Gregory while former Cardiff City Under-23 captain Ibrahim Bakare has also joined and made his debut at Daventry in midweek.

Experienced midfielder Kemy Agustien also started for the Poppies on Tuesday as goals from Jordan Graham and Keaton Ward saw them fight back from a goal down to defeat their Step 4 hosts.

Boss Glover is hoping the injuries do begin to ease up over the coming weeks as Kettering head into some key fixtures in the Vanarama National League North.

The first of those is a home clash against Spennymoor Town at Latimer Park on Saturday but the Poppies don’t exactly go into it in fine form.

Since defeating leaders King’s Lynn Town 1-0 at Latimer Park on September 27, Kettering have suffered a 6-1 defeat at the same opponents in the third qualifying round of the Emirates FA Cup before they went down to that heavy league loss at Scarborough.

“We have lost 6-1 and 5-0 in the two games since our best performance of the season,” Glover said.

“The reality is that we haven’t been able to field a full-strength side. We went into the FA Cup game with the walking wounded and then we have gone to Scarborough with three youth team players on the bench.

“We are in the middle of an eight-game cycle and playing Kidderminster, Scarborough and King’s Lynn, we have picked up a win within those three matches.

“Kidderminster and King’s Lynn are amongst the best teams in the league so they have been difficult games anyway, let alone with an injury crisis.

“We now head into the next batch of games really looking to get people back.

“We have been down to the bare bones but we have worked and are working to bring players in.

“Rhys has had a concussion but we are hoping he can return.

“With Brad, we will treat him this week and we will wait to hear from Mansfield on how George’s hamstring is.

“It’s been a catalogue of one after the other. While you could normally absorb one or two injuries, having five at the same time means it’s always going to be a struggle.

“It’s been a difficult time for us but we are hoping that as people return, we can get back to the levels we showed against King’s Lynn at home.”