Poppies ‘haven’t got time to be tired’ as they head to struggling AFC Sudbury
Boss Liam McDonald accepts that Kettering Town's intense fixture list is affecting his players, but he has told them they 'haven't got time to be tired' as they look to maintain their play-off ambitions with a trip to AFC Sudbury on Saturday (ko 3pm).
It has been a busy March so for the Poppies who have just played three home matches in eight days after almost two months without a fixture at Latimer Park.
McDonald's side won the first two of those encounters, but were poor as they were beaten 2-0 at home by relegation-threatened Alvechurch on Tuesday night.
Saturday's trip to Suffolk to take on the side sitting second-from bottom in the Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central sparks another little blitz of games for the Poppies, who play four times in 11 days.
First up is a quick return with Sudbury at Latimer Park next Tuesday, before further home encounters with Quorn on March 21 and Banbury United on March 24.
Kettering go to Sudbury still sitting 11th in the table and seven points off the top five with two games in hand, so McDonald knows his team can't afford too many more slip-ups if they are to close that gap and rise up the table.
Speaking after the loss to Alvechurch, McDonald told Kettering Town's YouTube channel: "Were we tired? I saw it, we looked a little bit lethargic in certain areas of the pitch.
"Mentally, as a performance it is probably the first time where I have said to the boys that everybody in that dressing room has had a bad day.
"You get those days, but in the situation we are in right now we can't really have them, or at least not too many of them anyway.
"We have to make sure that we regroup. I know the boys are tired, we play a high intensity game and I understand that, and in certain parts of the game we looked jaded
"We did on Saturday as well, and we hung in there then.
"We go away from home now, we are back on the road and need to put on a good performance, and then we are back at home on Tuesday and we will need a big crowd in to be our 12th man and get these boys over the line.
"I accept the players are tired, and I accept that and understand that, but we haven't got time to be tired, we need to make sure we are winning games of football.
"Tuesday was a stuttering performance from us and it was just one of those games where collectivelty we didn't play well as a team.
"There were some poor performances, and they know that, but we need to bounce back."
Saturday's hosts Sudbury sit second from bottom and 10 points from safety.
They are on a run of 12 matches without a win in the league, losing 11 of those, with their most recent loss a 3-1 home defeat to a revitalised Stamford on Saturday.