Leese knows it’s up to him and his players to halt Poppies' poor start

It’s been a poor start to the Southern League Premier Central for the Poppies as they have suffered three defeats in as many games, the latest of which was a 3-2 loss at Barwell on Monday night which came just 48 hours after they had been beaten 4-2 by Stourbridge at Latimer Park.

The three losses have made it Kettering’s worst start to a league season for 10 years and comes after a tough summer, which has seen a new management committee take charge of the day-to-day running of the club while Leese was only appointed at the beginning of June after the departure of previous boss Lee Glover.

The Poppies will be looking to halt their poor start when they host newly-promoted and, so far, unbeaten Halesowen Town at Latimer Park tomorrow (Saturday).

And boss Leese said: “There’s only me and the players who are going to get us out of this mess.

“Whether it’s the same group or a different group, that’s the only thing I can control. And I will control it.

“I said on Saturday (after the defeat to Stourbridge) there are one or two there who are just not showing enough and not performing at the level or aligned to the game plans that we set out.

“There won’t be anyone else who can change the fortunes, it will be down to me and I will be working as hard as I can between now and the weekend to do that.”

Leese, meanwhile, offered an apology to the Poppies’ fans who made the short trip to Leicestershire on Monday evening.

Kettering were 3-0 down inside 61 minutes with late goals from Lewis White and Tyrone Lewthwaite not being enough to salvage anything from the game.

That came after they had squandered a 2-0 lead in the 4-2 loss to Stourbridge.

And Leese said: “We have to give our apologies to the supporters who came over and to the club as well, the people who back us.

“They back us unconditionally but there were some things there, which are not what you want to see from players in a Kettering Town shirt.

“There is a leadership group in there but it’s just not happening.

“We have to go back to the drawing board, we have some things to do very, very quickly before Saturday and we will do them.”