We must focus on ourselves, says Poppies boss Law

Having hit top spot in the Evo-Stik South League Premier on New Year’s Day, the Poppies’ stay at the summit didn’t even last a week as they suffered a 3-2 defeat at Basingstoke Town last weekend.

Their scheduled trek to Tiverton Town on Tuesday fell foul of the weather and they, like the others at the top end, could only sit back and watch as Hereford maintained their charge towards the summit with a 2-1 success at Stratford Town.

The title favourites are now just a point behind Kettering and two behind leaders King’s Lynn Town with three games in hand on both.

And while Poppies boss Marcus Law insists the Bulls will deserve credit if they overcome their hectic fixture schedule and continue their surge, he insists Kettering must focus on their own matches, the next of which is against Kings Langley at Latimer Park this weekend.

“Hereford have got a tough ask this month,” Law said.

“Their squad is being tested but they got the job done again the other night and there’s no doubt that, at the moment, they are the benchmark.

“They have a lot of games to play in a short space of time but if they come through the rest of this month and February unscathed then they will be tough to stop.

“If they and Slough don’t make any mistakes with their games in hand then everyone will have to give them credit.

“I think the race is still going to be close but, fundamentally, we can only be in that race if we keep our home form going in the same way and we make sure we make fewer mistakes when we are on the road.

“All we can do is try to win as many games as we can.

“People will look at the other results and try to predict how things will go.

“But we have to make sure we focus on ourselves and the next game and that is Kings Langley. We have been good at home and we want that to continue at the weekend.”