Kettering Town way off the pace as they are held to a draw at Worcester City
Kettering Town put in arguably their worst performance of the season as they were held to a lacklustre 1-1 draw at Worcester City in the Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central on Saturday.
DIspite the impressive backdrop of Sixways Stadium, home of Worcester Warriors rugby, the Poppies were unable to get out of first gear for most of the match with errant passing and poor control making it a difficult watch for both sets of fans.
Manager Simon Hollyhead spent more than half and hour in the changing room after the final whistle before talking to the waiting media, announcing that he was ‘really not happy’.
One player who did come away from the match with credit was the towerer keeper Jason Alexander who needed to keep a lot more shots out of the net than his opposite number who was making his debut for Worcester.
Edward Rowe was the first to send the ball goalward on 11 minutes but Alexander made a comfortable catch.
Kettering were undone with a counter attack on 24 minutes as Felix Miles surged up the pitch but was caught by Shane Flynn, delaying the pass to Rowe who was called offside but forced a strong save from Alexander before the flag was raised.
At the other end, Connor Stanley did everything right on the half hour mark, cutting back into the area but saw his shot bravely blocked by Spencer Hamilton.
With half-time approaching, anyone in the tea bar queues would have missed the most entertaining period of the game.
Liam Lockett forced a fine save low to his left from Alexander.
The resulting corner on 45 minutes sailed towards the back post where Hamilton outmuscled Will Glennon to float his header into the net. For the fifth time this season, Kettering needed to come back from behind and took less than 60 seconds to do so.
From the restart, the ball found Stanley on the left who beat his opposite number, putting the ball through his legs and whipped in a cross beyond the diving Harley Price and Nile Ranger was on hand to head home from just yards out into an empty net.
Any thoughts of the second half keeping up with this pace were quickly dashed as the errors and wayward shooting continued from both sides.
Subsitute Wes York forced Price into hurried action when a long bouncing ball found the midfielder goalbound but the young Worcester keeper ably managed to hold on to the catch.
Kyle Belmonte and Miles both had chances outside the area on 54 and 57 minutes respectively as the hosts began to enjoy more of the possession.
Belmonte found himself in space on 64 but could only find the hands of Alexander with a tame shot.
Stanley forced price into a parried save on 68 minutes to register Kettering's first shot of the second half whilst Eddie Oppong tried to replicate his heoric goal from the opening day against Royston, with two efforts outside of the box - one going just wide of the left upright and the second shot inches over the bar.
Two late corners for the hosts threatened to break Kettering hearts but all were cleared to safety.
Even the introduction of Jamar Loza, who was clearly still suffering from illness, which was confirmed by Hollyhead post match, couldn't spark a final effort for the Poppies.
Kettering still remain in a handy position after their first seven games of the season and it is quickly forgotten just how new this squad still is.
But fans still await a full 90 minutes performance from this side.
Tuesday night's visit of big spending Spalding United in the ‘flower derby’, as the Poppies host the Tulips, would be a great time for such a performance.