Sam Bennett the last-gasp hero as Poppies clinch dramatic win at Halesowen

After an enforced 18-day break, Jim Le Masurier’s squad were champing at the bit to reinvigorate their Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central season.

The Grove is a tough place for any team to visit, with Halesowen boasting the best home form in the entire league prior to kick off.

But after a wobbly opening period, the Poppies grew into their task to claim a dramatic 2-1 win, producing another performance to encourage fans that things will be more than alright.

The victory, courtesy of Sam Bennett’s late, late winner, lifts the Poppies to 16th in the table, three points above the drop zone.

However it was nearly a disastrous start after just four minutes when loanee keeper Josh Blunkell, who was covering for the suspended Billy Johnson, rushed off his line but couldn’t cleanly win the ball.

Thankfully for Blunkell, Caine Elliott could not compose himself quick enough and shot wide of the empty net.

This time the early warning was heeded by Kettering who enjoyed the majority of the possession in the first half, but we unable to create any clear-cut chances.

Tom Scott put in another industrious shift, linking well with Tyrone Lewthwaite and was upended in the area on 20 minutes, but the minimal contact did not convince referee Wootton to award a penalty.

Luca Miller and Lewthwaite both had long range efforts charged down whilst Northampton Town loanee signing Neo Dobson was the only player to sting the hands of Daniel Platt in the Yeltz goal, but his tight angled effort was easily held.

Blunkell had to scramble to his left five minutes before the half-time whistle when Miracle Okafor prodded the ball just wide as the hosts began to find their feet in the final part of the half.

The match which had been simmering until, now sparked into life just 40 seconds after the restart.

Lewthwaite received the ball from Stohrer, turned and unleashed a shot into the top left corner giving Platt no chance to lay a glove on the ball.

Halesowen responded strongly with the best player of the match, Kieren Donnelly, cutting in from the right and forcing a save from Blunkell just before the hour mark.

Substitute Richard Gregory almost made an immediate impact on 69 minutes but his effort was hacked away near the goalmouth by Kelvin Langmead.

Between these two opportunities Lewthwaite could have made things much more comfortable for Kettering, but Platt did well forcing the striker wide when one-on-one and saved well from a tight angle.

Langmead also had a shot turned off the line by Todd Parker with the match now taking on a frenetic pace.

The onslaught from the hosts finally gained them a deserved equaliser on 73 minutes when Donnelly found Gregory in space on the edge of the area - his shot appeared to take a slight deflection off Ben Toseland to leave a wrong-footed Blunkell rooted to the line.

Kettering boss Le Masurier was shown a straight red on 80 minutes for allegedly saying something unsavoury to the nearby linesman, to make the already thunderous home support turn positively febrile.

Dawson and Lewthwaite turned away two goal-bound efforts late on to deny Halesowen a winner with the hosts appearing to be the only side able to grab a winner as Kettering got deeper and deeper in their own half.

But with the clock on 96 minutes, a stray cross from Parker was intercepted by Bennett in the middle of the field.

He was alone bearing down on goal but could not beat Platt who dived to his right and put the ball out for a corner.

Rarely does a striker get the chance of immediate redemption but the resulting corner was nodded back across the face of goal for the waiting Bennett to bury into the roof of the net and grab the unlikeliest of three points.