Kettering Town's reaction pleases coach Joe

The Poppies went into their first Vanarama National League North home game for a month on the back of three defeats in a row - the latest of which was a 4-0 defeat at Chester.

Ian Culverhouse labelled the weekend performance as the worst since he arrived as manager.

But Kettering bounced back well with Rhys Sharpe scoring his first goal for the club to level things up after a mix-up between goalkeeper Jackson Smith and Liam Daly had gifted Miles Storey the opening goal to put Hereford in front.

The Poppies struck the crossbar and the post as they possibly shaded the contest but they were also indebted to Smith for a fine save from Momodou Touray deep into stoppage-time to preserve the point.

Simpson admitted the night was as much about a seeing a positive performance than anything else and, from that point of view, he was left fairly content.

“It was one of them where we needed a reaction from Saturday,” the Poppies coach said.

“It’s the first time we have probably questioned the work ethic but we started the game very well and their goal was a massive sucker-punch.

“But the reaction to it was brilliant and then I felt we dominated large spells of the game, got into good areas and created chances.

“It was good to score the goal we did, it was a really nice finish and I certainly thought we would go on and win it from there.

“It was very difficult to play on the surface in terms of possession-based football. I felt we edged territory and edged the moments and we could have done with a bit more luck in front of goal.

“Having said that, they have had a chance at the end and Jacko (Jackson Smith) has made a great save.

“Overall, a point is a point, we take it and move on.

“Beyond anything else, it was about getting the monkey off our back after losing three on the spin and we did it against a good side and hopefully we take it forward now.”

Kettering are back at Latimer Park on Saturday when they entertain fifth-placed Chorley.