Poppies are clear but Stohrer knows there’s more work to do

Gary Stohrers fine volley put Kettering Town 2-0 up during their 3-0 victory over Banbury United at Latimer Park last weekend. Picture by Peter Short

Having suffered a 3-2 home defeat to Coalville Town in the first of their games in hand on second-placed Stourbridge, the Poppies made no mistake in the second as they saw off 10-man Banbury United 3-0 at Latimer Park last weekend.

Kettering head to play-off chasing Biggleswade Town, who were 3-2 winners at Latimer Park in January, this weekend with an 11-point advantage at the top with just eight games to go.

It’s a position of power that the Poppies really shouldn’t let slip now.

But Stohrer, who produced a man-of-the-match display against Banbury, says there is no hint of complacency within the squad.

“All the lads know that there is still a lot to do,” the versatile midfielder said.

“We still have to work hard but we know if we can get four or five more wins then we will be there.

“It’s just a case of trying to get over the line but the atmosphere is brilliant, there is a real togetherness in the changing room and we just need to try to finish the job off.

“Biggleswade turned us over at our place so I think we’d quite like to get a bit of revenge on them for that.

“We did it to Banbury last weekend after they beat us at their ground.

“But we will just go to Biggleswade, try to put in another good performance and see if we can take another step towards the title.”

The Poppies were helped by the first-half sending off of former Kettering man Edmund Hotter last Saturday before they struck all three goals before the break.

Stohrer got the second with an excellent volley and he admitted it was a goal that was long overdue.

“The defeat against Coalville was difficult to take because we want to win all the games we can,” he added.

“But it’s always important to bounce back and I think we have done that every time we have lost this season.

“And we did it again with a clean sheet and another good performance from the lads.

“Banbury had a good go at us in the first 10 or 15 minutes, I think the red card helped us but you still have to work hard and we managed to wrap it up before half-time.

“The lads were saying in the warm-up that I was due a goal and rightly so. As soon as it dropped I knew was going to hit it and it was a good feeling to see it go in.”