Professional Poppies performance pleases boss McDonald as 10-man Stortford are swept aside
Kettering Town boss Liam McDonald was delighted with his side's professional performance as they eased to a 2-0 win at 10-man Bishop's Stortford in the Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central on Saturday.
The home side had Charlie Johnson sent off midway through the first-half after he fouled Wes York, and from the resultant penalty Will Glennon made it 1-0.
The Poppies then doubled their advantage with a Mark Panter strike a minute into the second half, and that was how it stayed despite the visitors dominating possession and creating other chances, hitting the woodwork on numerous occasions.
But getting the win was all that mattered to McDonald, who now wants his team to back it up with another victory when they host AFC Sudbury on Tuesday night (ko 7.45pm), although the weather forecast ahead of that one is not looking good.
"I thought before the sending off we looked like we were slightly edging it," said McDonald. "We kept their threats really quiet.
"We had a huddle before we went out, and the skipper (Georg Forsyth) said 'we have worked all week and we have a plan for this, so let's make sure we carry it out'.
"Look, the lad's been sent off but games still aren't won when you are playing against 10.
"But if anybody watched this game, they will have seen we were really controlled, and in the end it could have ended up being three, four or five.
"We have hit the bar, the post, had a couple of half chances, so I an really pleased because we have worked hard this week.
"I thought definsively we looked really strong, and Jay (Jason Alexander) has not had a save to make really.
"We have come away to a team that have ambitions of fighting for the play-offs as well, and we have come and won, and now we need to be ruthless on Tuesday."
The Poppies go into that game sitting 12th in the table, and nine points adrift of the play-off places, but they do have one or two games in hand on nearly all of the sides above them, aside from Stratford Town in ninth and 11th-placed Stortford.
"We are what we are, and we are united from top to bottom in this football club, that 's what we have to be and we have talked about that," said McDonald.
"You saw that on the pitch on Saturday, and we just have to go and perform. The lads knew we had 18 cup finals, it's now 17 cup finals.
"In the week, we said we had to come to Bishop's Stortford and win, and we now have that game in hand on Tuesday and we have to go back-to-back wins."