Kinniburgh unfazed by a live action audition

Steve Kinniburgh will oversee his first home game as joint caretaker-manager of Kettering Town alongside Luke Graham on Saturday. Picture by Peter Short

But the former Corby Town boss insists he and fellow joint caretaker-manager Luke Graham are only focused on getting the “right performance” out of the Poppies players as they seek some much-needed points in the Vanarama National League North.

Kinniburgh and Graham oversaw a much-improved display at Hereford nearly two weeks ago as they took charge of the team for the first time following the sacking of Nicky Eaden.

But Kettering still slipped to a 1-0 defeat, which leaves them still firmly entrenched in the bottom three of the table, with the bottom two going down this season.

The club’s deadline for applications for the permanent role closed last Friday and while Graham has ruled himself out, Kinniburgh remains open to taking the job on if the club want him to.

And, with the Poppies facing another two-week break from action after this weekend due to their home clash with Altrincham next Saturday being postponed after the Robins made further progress in the Emirates FA Cup, Kinniburgh is well aware of how important the clash with Spennymoor is.

Asked is this weekend’s clash could be seen as his audition for the job, Kinniburgh said: “I am sure it could be seen that way.

“This isn’t something I was expecting to come my way and it’s not something that I was really going out and looking for.

“Luke has already made his position clear about the permanent role.

“But if we go and do well and the club wants to have discussions about moving it forward then obviously I would be happy to be part of that.

“I am in and around the club on a daily basis with my other role and if the club feel I could do both roles then that is a conversation that we can have.

“But I haven’t had any discussions with the club about their timeline.

“The situation at the moment is that they have asked me and Luke to do the job for the time being as caretakers and, in truth, we aren’t concentrating on anything else apart from Spennymoor.

“We are focusing on getting the right performance and, hopefully, the right result and then we will take it from there.

“We won’t allow ourselves to get caught up in anything else. We have this game and then it looks like another break until the game at Curzon Ashton (on October 26) so we will just see how things pan out."