Taylor fires in four as Poppies pay the price on the road once again

Taylor hit all four goals for the hosts as the Poppies were beaten 4-2 in County Durham - their 14th defeat from 22 away games this season.

Fortunately, Kettering were helped by results from elsewhere with Leamington, who sit in the final relegation spot, remaining four points behind them with two games to play after they went down to a late goal in a 2-1 loss to Chorley.

But the Poppies’ fate in the Vanarama National League North still hangs in the balance after they fell victim to some lethal finishing from Taylor, although he was helped by some generous defending, as he struck all four goals in the space of 33 minutes of playing time.

Boss Glover said: “We didn’t deal with their centre-forward who, pound for pound, is one of the best in the league. We didn’t deal with him at all, all day.

“When they have a player like that and they’re putting balls into the box, we have to defend it better and we didn’t.

“We got back to 3-1 and we went in and spoke about the next goal.

“I felt we would get chances going down the hill, I felt we could pen them in.

“But there were a few mistakes in the lead up to their fourth goal. No-one presses the ball and he has come inside and had his shot. You have to get out to the ball.

“It was a great finish but, from my point of view, there’s always three or four mistakes leading up to a goal and you could see them.

“We created a lot of chances but did we get enough first contacts in our box? As the game went on, we probably got more.

“We are asking players to have a go and they have done but we came up short.”

Jimmy Knowles struck for Kettering before half-time and when George Forsyth got it back to 4-2 with 17 minutes to go, it led to the Poppies’ best spell of the game but they were unable to find any further goals.

“The dressing-room we have got is giving us everything,” Glover added.

“We were just a bit naive in the early stages of the game.

“When you go 1-0 down, you can’t win the game in the next five or 10 minutes but you can lose it and you give yourself a mountain to climb if you don’t get in your positions.

“I’d have liked to have got to 3-2 or 4-3 and then seen what they were like but when it’s 4-1 or 4-2 they still have that buffer and you can’t apply the pressure you want.

“We should have got within a goal with the chances we had.”

The Poppies will know exactly what they will have to do in their final home game of the season against third-placed Chester next week after fellow strugglers Farsley Celtic and Blyth Spartans have played each other in a huge encounter on Tuesday night.