Kettering Town boss Cox excited for second half of the season

Kettering Town celebrate after George Cooper headed home their third goal in the 3-0 victory over Curzon Ashton. Pictures by Peter Short

Paul Cox believes Kettering Town have set themselves up for an “exciting” second half of the season in the Vanarama National League North.

The Poppies bounced back from their 1-0 midweek defeat at leaders Brackley Town in impressive fashion as they beat Curzon Ashton 3-0 at Latimer Park.

Callum Powell scored twice and a late George Cooper header wrapped up a third win in four games for Cox’s team.

It was a pleasing day for Poppies boss Paul Cox

The victory saw Kettering move up to eighth in the table - one point and one place off the play-off positions.

Cox admitted his team didn’t have things all their own way in the match but he felt they were deserved winners.

“I thought we deserved to win the game,” the Poppies manager said.

“What’s more pleasing is that when you look at us, we are still a bit threadbare and we put a few square pegs in round holes especially when Chris Smith had to come off quite early on.

Riccardo Calder applauds the Kettering fans after the final whistle

“But I think the spirit within the camp is as good as it ever has been and it’s nice to see us win convincingly and it’s nice to be looking at the league table now.

“It makes it exciting for everyone.

“The boys now seem to have an understanding of the little things that were going wrong maybe 10 games ago.

“We didn’t have it all our own way in this game but we are better at managing those moments when we’re not as good as we want to be.

“It makes things exciting and it has set things up nicely for the second half of the season.”

The Poppies will be back in action next Saturday when they head to Bradford (Park Avenue).