Problems piling up for boss Le Masurier as St Ives hit 'lazy' Poppies for six

The Poppies put in an abject, lazy and frankly disrespectful performance away to St Ives to lose their latest Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central clash 6-0 on Boxing Day - with several brave saves from keeper Billy Johnson stopping the score line reaching double figures.

The defeat, coupled with a 4-0 win for AFC Subdbury at Berkhamsted, saw the Poppies drop back into the relegation zone, and the pressure is building.

When asked after the match what went wrong, Le Masurier was just as baffled.

“If I knew the answer to that I’d be able to tell you,” said the Poppies boss.

"What you saw there was a lack of desire, heart, everything you believe should be engrained in to those types of players.

"We just lacked that and St Ives gave everything that we didn’t.

"There’s not enough players in there, I believe, that are ready for the fight in the trenches.

"I don’t think there’s enough trust in the players that he’s gonna bail me out, he’s gonna help me out. Naivety is a huge problem at the moment based maybe on some youthfulness.

"They’ve got the option now - the ultimatum.

"If they wanna be here, then fine, they’ll be running on Thursday and we’ll see what desire they’ve got then.

"If they don’t, they pick up the phone and say ‘gaffer, I don’t wanna be here any more, you’re right, I’ve not got it anymore’. That’s the option they’ve been given.”

Bizarrely, it was the Poppies who had the first chance of the game.

The returning Dan Jarvis made keeper Eddie Breary work to keep out his well directed header on nine minutes.

But the following 80 minutes belonged to the hosts.

An errant pass was intercepted in the Kettering half by Ben Mansah who went on to neatly lob Johnson on 18 minutes. Tyrone Lewthwaite then limped off with a back injury minutes later to greatly reduce the visitor’s attacking threat.

It was 2-0 to the Saints on 40 minutes when a Dan Barton shot was well parried by Johnson but the immediate scramble on the line was won by Jonny Edwards who bundled the ball home.

The large Kettering support was already hostile towards to their players and management by half-time, but Le Masurier opted to allow the players to right their wrongs.

They didn’t, and despite the introduction of Luca Miller who sparked a flicker of life, St Ives went through the gears in the second half.

A low Myles Cowling shot was deflected in by Edwards for his brace on the hour mark. Three minutes later and Brandon Njoku added a fourth goal with a short range tap in.

Njoku added his second and St Ives’ fifth on 75 minutes when his initial effort was half-stopped by Johnson allowing the striker to roll the rebound home.

The final cherry on an already well iced cake was added by Cowling who got the goal he deserved on 90 minutes with a calm finish 10 yards out.

There as a minor incident between player and fans when Rhys Sharpe took to heart a comment from a fan and began a short verbal joust.

If only the same anger and passion was shown on the field of play?

The wheels are in danger of quickly falling off if the same effort levels are delivered in the coming weeks.

New Year’s Day offers a chance to right the ship in front of what should be Kettering’s largest attendance of the season against promotion-chasing Stratford Town at Latimer Park.

Avoiding back to back relegations for the Poppies is far from assured though.