Kettering boss Cox issues a stern warning after Gloucester defeat

Paul Cox issued a stern warning to his Kettering Town players following their 3-1 defeat at Gloucester City last night (Tuesday) - “We can’t afford to turn up for just 45 minutes”.

After making such an encouraging start to the new campaign with a 2-0 success over Chelmsford City in the second qualifying round of the Emirates FA Cup at the weekend, the new-look Poppies were brought back down to earth with a bump in their opening Vanarama National League North game of the season.

Cox’s team fell behind inside the first minute when Alex Whittle fired home and it was 2-0 on 35 minutes when Matt McClure scored from a corner.

The Poppies’ task became even harder when Sam Jones was sent-off for a second bookable offence as he kicked the ball away having previously been cautioned for a foul.

The 10 men did put up more of a fight after the break but conceded a third late on when Khaellem Bailey struck and, although Connor Kennedy pulled one back in stoppage-time, Kettering were well beaten.

And Cox made his feelings perfectly clear in the aftermath.

“We spoke to the boys about where the game was lost and it was in the first 15 minutes,” the Poppies boss said.

“Gloucester applied themselves, they played with intensity and they were on the front foot from the start.

“They scored early on and we lost too many individual battles. We didn’t play well with the ball and got exactly what we deserved early on.

“The sending-off came and, all of sudden, 2-0 down away from home on a Tuesday night and you’ve got a mountain to climb.

“All the things we did well on Saturday weren’t there, especially in the first 45 minutes.

“We were trying to chase our tails in the second half but by then the horse had bolted and it was more a case of damage limitation.

“I did think we were brave in the second half. All the things we lacked in the first 30 to 40 minutes of the game we tried to do in the second half. We tried to pass the ball better, our shape was a lot more sophisticated.

“But I am hoping that this levels us out a bit and we get to understand that we can’t afford to have a night where we take our foot off the pedal.

“We can’t afford to turn up for just 45 minutes away from home on a Tuesday night and expect to win a football match.

“I told the boys before the game about the odds that are on us. The bookies have us down as relegation certs. We need to understand where we are as a football club and as a group and that we can’t afford to have a night off.

“It’s all about proving people wrong and improving as a club and to do that, we can’t afford to turn up at half-time. We don’t have that luxury.”

Cox, meanwhile, is hoping summer signing Jones will learn from his red card, which turned a tough task into an almost impossible one.

“I think Sam will be disappointed with himself, he’s an experienced boy,” the Kettering manager added.

“Both sides were getting a little bit agitated with some of the decisions that were being made and “I am 100 per cent sure he will learn from this. And he needs to learn from it because you can’t afford to lose your best players when you’re already up against it.

“As long as he learns from it, that’s all I am concerned about. We can’t change it now, we have to move on.”