Poppies must get Chester loss ‘out of their system’ as focus turns to their judgement day

The Poppies’ 11-match unbeaten run at Latimer Park came to an end as Darren Stephenson’s goal earned third-placed Chester victory as they extended their unbeaten run on the road in the Vanarama National League North to an incredible 21 game.

The winning moment came after Kettering had been reduced to 10 men 10 minutes into the second half when captain Gary Stohrer was sent-off for a second bookable offence.

With Farsley Celtic claiming a 2-1 victory over Gloucester City, the Poppies now head into the final day of the season sitting just two points clear of Blyth Spartans who occupy the final relegation spot.

Kettering face a tough trip to Kidderminster Harriers next Saturday while Blyth host mid-table Hereford.

A win for the Poppies or anything other than a victory for Spartans should see Kettering survive by the skin of their teeth, although Farsley could also still go down should they lost at Spennymoor Town, Blyth win and Kettering avoid defeat.

The omens don’t look good considering Kettering have picked up just 12 points from 22 away matches so far.

And boss Glover said: “Kidderminster is a week away. We will watch a bit of what they have been doing and have a look at the game against Chester as well.

“They (the players) need to go and get this out of their system and come in on Tuesday and be ready to go again.

“We will go there, try to score and try to win the game.

“Kidderminster will be looking to get into the play-offs because they’ve had a good run but that might just suit us.

“Our away form in the last two games wasn’t good enough so that needs to change but we might just be due something away from home.”

Glover, meanwhile, admitted Stohrer’s dismissal had a direct impact on the eventual defeat to Chester with the Poppies more than matching their high-flying visitors in the first half and the early stages of the second period.

Kettering also weren’t helped as they had to withdraw on-loan striker Jimmy Knowles at half-time due to illness.

“I said to Gaz at half-time, ‘let’s be careful here because you’re on a booking’,” Glover said.

“I didn’t have a great view of the second challenge and if he didn’t get booked for that, I would have been taking him off.

“As soon as he was off, we were massively on the back foot and we’d started the second half brightly.

“I’d said before the Leamington game that discipline was key when you get into big games because people get themselves sent-off and do rash things and we had to make sure that wasn’t us. Gaz has been great for us this season, he’s mis-timed a tackle.

“The way Chester set up with split strikers and a diamond, it looked like a 0-0.

“I wouldn’t have been happy with that, I wanted us to nick it but if you can’t win it, don’t get beaten.

“We have gone with two forwards against teams towards the top and we have been beaten heavily, Chester away being one of them.

“I wanted to get us up the pitch more in the second half when we were attacking towards our fans.

“We had a couple of throws and corners after half-time but once the sending-off happened, we were really on the back foot. It looked like we were quite deep for the goal.”