Lavery left frustrated as 10-man Kettering Town slide to narrow defeat at Royston

Harvey Beckett scored the only goal of the match early in the second-half, and Kettering were then reduced to 10 men when goalkeeper Dan Jezeph was red-carded for handling the ball outside his area.

The Poppies did not have a goalkeeper on the bench, with defender Connor Johnson taking over in between the sticks.

Royston then also had a player sent off midway through the second half, but the Poppies were unable to find a way through the home side's defence, and Lavery was left to reflect on a frustrating afternoon and performance from his players.

"I came her last year with a team that wasn't good enough, and I think we lost 4-0 or 5-0," said the Poppies boss.

"I have a far better team now, but this match shows you that stats don't win games.

"In the first half it is 80 per cent to 20 per cent possession in our favour, and if you don't take your chances, that can happen in the second half.

"But it doesn't matter about the game, you look at the result, and it is 1-0 to them and it doesn't matter how you play. Stats are a waste of time."

"I think it was a game of limited chances, but it was a game lost in both boxes."

On the official's performance, Lavery said: "I don't like to blame referees but that was a bad performance all round, and I told him that.

"Dan has ran out, but he is going away from goal.

"It has hit his arm, but I don't think their player is scoring from there, so it's not a red card. Give him a yellow.

"We didn't have a keeper on the bench, and CJ has gone in and done a good job, although they didn't really pepper him.

"Then they have a man sent off, and I don't think that was a sending off either, but the ref has levelled it up because he feels sorry for us."

Kettering Town are quickly back in action as they travel to St Ives on Monday night (ko 7.45pm).

Quotes courtesy of Peter Short