No looking back for Poppies boss Cox

Paul Cox insists he and his Kettering Town players are looking forward and not back as they gear up for a big Emirates FA Cup clash at National League North rivals Leamington.

It will be the first time the two clubs have met since that extraordinary evening in the Buildbase FA Trophy in Warwickshire back in January.

The Poppies shipped three first-half goals, had Michael McGrath sent-off for an altercation with the referee, were then held up for over an hour in the dark following a floodlight failure at half-time before eventually losing 3-0 to the Brakes while finishing the game with only eight men after Connor Kennedy and Connor Johnson also saw red.

That proved to be Kettering’s last game of the 2020-21 campaign as the league season was declared null and void due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, plenty has changed in the space of eight months with Cox’s new-look Poppies having made a decent start to the new season as they sit in eighth place in the league, just above the Brakes.

If Kettering are to make it through the third qualifying round clash tomorrow (Saturday), they will have to break a run that has seen them draw just one and lose seven of their last eight meetings with Leamington.

But Cox insists no-one at Kettering will be dwelling on the past.

“I think both clubs would be looking at it from the same viewpoint in that they probably wanted an easier tie but it is what it is,” the Poppies boss said.

“To be honest, I don’t think there are really any easy games in the FA Cup because, as we have already seen, we have had to come through two tough matches with Spalding to get here.

“I know people will talk about past games between us and Leamington but I want to see beyond that. I don’t want to concentrate on the past.

“I feel we are a different animal to what we were in January and I don’t want to talk about floodlights and what’s happened in the past.

“The one thing this group are is fearless. They don’t seem to want to look back, they want to look forward.

“I just want to go there, ensure the boys are focused and do what we can to try to get ourselves into the next round. That’s how I see it.”