Poppies' display at Tiverton one of the best of the season, says Austin

The Poppies squad set off on the long trek to Devon at lunchtime and didn’t arrive back in the county until the early hours of this morning.But it was well worth it as two goals from Brett Solkhon and Mathew Stevens’ 22nd of the campaign in all competitions secured an impressive success to keep the Poppies firmly on course for a play-off place in the Evo-Stik South League Premier.The win came hot on the heels of the 6-0 thrashing of Bishop’ Stortford at the weekend.And assistant-manager Austin was delighted as Kettering became only the fourth team to beat Tiverton in the league on their own pitch.He said: “The manager (Marcus Law) set us up with the tactics and a gameplan and the lads executed it perfectly. It was one of our best performances of the season home or away.“The pitch was very boggy and there was a lot of hard graft needed by the lads and the overall performance was fantastic.“Tiverton have been very good at home, it’s that record that has put them in the race for the play-offs so to go there on a Tuesday night and win in that was was very pleasing.“We left at midday and some lads wouldn’t have got home until 5am but we did things properly, we got there early enough and we were ready for it.“It was important for us because our results in matches where we have had to travel long distances haven’t been great.“But we feel like we have got rid of that hoodoo. The attitude from the whole squad was excellent.”The Poppies, who sit in fourth place, are now gearing up for another big game at the weekend as they head to Chesham United, who are one place but 12 points below them.