Kettering Town v Leiston

Pitching in Southern League Premier Division Central

Saturday 23rd November 2024 3:00pm

Referee: Mario Stetakovic              Assistants: Johnny Ramm and Sam Waterhouse

Kettering would be looking to get back to winning ways after last Saturday’s last gasp conceded goal cost the team two points. The winning streak would be broken some time and at least the unbeaten run in the league was maintained. More concerning was the loss of control by Kelly-Evans after the final whistle, which means the team must play three matches without the influential midfield dynamo. Devon has only himself to blame for missing next Sunday’s big match and will hopefully be able to resume playing in December fit and full of desire to make it up to the fans and his teammates. Leiston arrive at Latimer Park as a team in form unbeaten in their last seven league games winning 4 and drawing 3. Their last league defeat was on 24^th September at Bedford conceding in the 98^th minute in a 4-3 loss at Bedford. Former Poppy Billy Johnson would be in goal for Leiston. Billy arrived at the club last season when Andy Leese was desperately trying to assemble a squad and racked up the miles travelling from his home near Norwich. Playing behind a defence lacking in confidence, the statistics do not show the young keeper in the best light, but he will be keen to show the home fans what he is capable today.

Richard Lavery made three changes to the side that started against Bedford. Isiah Noel-Williams dropped to the bench being replaced by Wes York. Lewis White was omitted from the squad because of injury. His place was taken by Harlain Mbayo, available after serving a one match suspension following his dismissal against Redditch. Devon Kelly-Evans, starting his three-match suspension, was replaced by Gary Stohrer. Gary Hooper was named amongst the substitutes with Bruno Andrade being omitted.

The afternoon was grey, with the floodlights on from kick-off, and with a stiff wind blowing from behind the Tin Hat as storm Bert swept the country. It was the coldest match dayof the season so far and the rain, which had fell sporadically for most of the morning, was never far away.

The teams changed ends before Leiston, in all yellow, kicked-off attacking the Tin Hat. Kettering had the best of the early play ,and after only two minutes, Edwards tried his luck from 20 yards. However, the shot went wide of the post with Johnson untroubled. Two minutes later, Edwards turned provider driving to the by-line before cutting the ball back towards the far post looking for Wilson but Billy Johnson cut it out with ease.

Just before the ten-minute mark, the ball was fed out to Stohrer who pushed the ball forward into the Leiston penalty area for York to chase but Johnson beat him to it and gathered the ball with ease. Leiston quickly switched play to the opposite end where a miskick by Connor Johnson presented Leiston with the first corner of the game. The set piece was poor. Jezeph collected the ball, and bowling the ball out to Powell, initiated a swift Kettering riposte. Aaron played the ball to Ranger who held off his marker before squaring the ball to York. Wes advanced with the ball and appeared to be shaping up to deliver the ball towards the far post where Edwards was lurking. However, Wes decided to shoot and fired a fierce shot towards Johnson’s goal’s top left corner. Billy had to react sharply to push the ball behind for Kettering’s first corner from the open side. This led directly to a second corner but the third was sent directly into the side netting from Wilson.

Twelve minutes had been played when a clearance from Johnson was headed back where it came from by Mbayo. The Leiston defence cleared once more but in the direction of Thanoj. Andi himself headed the ball towards Wilson who raced onto the ball and made a penetrating run down Leiston’s right before squaring the ball to the feet of Edwards close to the penalty spot. Jonny looked up, and calmly passed the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal giving Johnson no chance. 1-0 Kettering 13 mins.

The goal appeared to spark the visitors into action and a good passing move involving Fatadjo and Quantrell fed the ball into Leiston’s top scorer Loza turn the ball wide of the post. Shortly after, Loza had another chance but his effort was blocked behind for a corner. The ball fell to Clements but his effort was blocked and cleared by Kettering.

Play was stopped after twenty minutes when Wilson went down injured with no Leiston player near him. The injury was sufficiently bad for him to have to leave the pitch to be replaced by Kai Fifield.

Leiston took control of the game having the majority of possession but without threatening the Kettering goal despite winning a couple of corners as Kettering’s defence completed their defensive duties efficiently.

The game got its first yellow card after thirty-three minutes after Mr Stetakovic adjudged that Hart had controlled the ball with his hand as the ball was kicked at him. Shortly after, Loza managed to show the Kettering defenders a set of clean heels as he got past the Kettering defensive line with a well-timed run. He fed the ball onto Quantrell but his shot was blocked and cleared by Kettering.

A minute later, play was once again stopped once again for an injured player. This time it was three of them Yun of Leiston and Fifield and Powell of Kettering. Yun and Fifield were standing waiting for a ball in the air to drop but Powell jumped in to head the ball in the air clear. After a period of treatment play, restarted with a free kick to Leiston despite Aaron winning the ball.

As the game meandered to half time, the visitor’s won a corner as Powell was forced to put the ball behind. The corner was partially cleared, but fell to Loza, who ran at Mbayo trying to get past him to the by-line. Harlain was firm though and as the forward managed to get around him planted his foot in the path of the ball performing a great block tackle causing Loza to go to the floor as he tripped over the unmoving ball. The Leiston player appealed for a penalty but the Referee was not interested. The forward continued his protestations despite a goal-kick being awarded. Such was his whinging, Mr Stetakovic fell the need to call the Leiston captain over to tell Loza to shut up where a simple yellow card would have sufficed.

The last action of the half occurred as in the final minute of regulation time Hart moved down the right wing. His deep cross looking for Edwards was headed clear by Clements. Due to the stoppages in the half requiring the sports therapists to enter the field of play, three additional minutes would be played but nothing of note occurred in them.

Half Time: Kettering Town 1  Leiston 0

Neither side made any changes at half-time but the weather took a turn for the worse as the rain started to come down more heavily. Fowkes attempted to take advantage of the poor conditions by trying, with the wind at his back, a shot from distance. However, despite the rain in his face, Jezeph collected the ball with ease. On clearing the ball, Jezeph appeared to suffer some discomfort and was seen to gingerly touch his midriff. For the remainder of the game Dan delegated goal-kicks to a teammate.

Seven minutes of the half had been played when pressure by Stohrer in the middle of the park caused Leiston to cough up possession. The ball broke loose to Edwards who drove forwards with purpose before playing a diagonal ball forward into the visitor’s penalty area for York to run onto. However, Johnson in the Leiston goal was alert, and slid across the wet turf to gather the ball before Wes could get to it. Shortly after, Ranger picked the ball inside his own half. Nile turned and ran at the middle of the Leiston defence. Taking the ball past three defenders his slipped the ball outside to Edwards close to the open side touch line. Skirting the full-back Jonny returned the ball to Ranger inside the penalty area. He was surrounded quickly by four yellow shirts and was unable to turn the ball goalwards, and thoroughly outnumbered, Nile lost possession and the attack broke down.

Leiston won a throw-in on the open side and there was a dispute over where the throw-in should be taken from with Loza leading the protests. Quantrell offered his opinion to the Referee but Mr Stetakovic took offence and booked him presumably for dissent.

After an hour’s play, the Leiston right-back Oli Yun, got forward and tried his luck from thirty yards. His shot deflected up into the air off a defender and bounced through to Jezeph. It was to be Yun’s last contribution to the game as shortly after, he was substituted in favour of Albie Armin.

The visitors were beginning to get on top of the game and a couple of minutes after the substitution Connor Johnson gave away a free kick on the edge on the edge of his own penalty area in a central position and earning a yellow card in the process. The free kick was headed away by a defender towards the open side where it was collected by a Leiston player who looped the ball high towards the far post. It was nodded down to the feet of Clements whose blast from six yards out was blocked behind for a corner. The resulting corner was punched clear by Jezeph.

With Kettering losing grip of the midfield, they made a substitution after sixty-six minutes withdrawing Fifield in favour of Isiah Noel-Williams.

With just over fifteen minutes left of the game, good pressing by Kettering in midfield saw a loose ball played backwards by Leiston. The nearest player to it was Ranger who latched onto the ball. Carrying the ball forwards, he almost lost his footing on the slippery surface but managed to regain his feet despite the ball appearing to touch his arm as he put it down to steady himself. Nile moved into the penalty area and looked to fire it past Johnson, but Billy got a firm hand on the ball to push it up into the air to be headed away by Rossi Jarvis.

Kettering kept the pressure up and were working the ball down Leiston’s right. Powell looked to run through on the overlap before he was deliberately tripped by Saunders as Aaron went past him with the ball nowhere near. The referee showed the height of inconsistency as he booked Johnson for a foul when contesting the ball but this cynical trip did not even warrant a word in the defender’s ear, let alone a booking. The free kick was lifted in but straight into Johnson’s hands.

With just over ten minutes to go, Fatadjo picked the ball up inside the centre circle. He looked to thread a diagonal ball through for Quantrell to run onto. Johnson looked to divert the ball wide with a slide towards the ball but did not make sufficient contact on the ball leaving Quantrell and Mbayo in a foot race to the ball with the forward always looking favourite. Jezeph advanced to the edge of his box, but the Leiston player won the race to the ball and calmly pushed the ball past Dan and into the bottom corner of the net. 1-1 Leiston 79 mins.

Feeling of deja-vu came to the Kettering camp, having twice already this season seen three points drift away with the finishing post in sight. The visitors were in the second half looking the better team, but unlike the Bedford and Harborough games, Kettering had time to rescue the win.

Kettering were determined to equalise, and from the restart, pressed forward and good work from Stohrer earned a corner on the open side. Before the set-piece could be taken, another Leiston player was booked. Hart’s corner had to be retaken as his initial kick was adjudged to have been outside the corner quadrant. The retaken kick was an improvement on the first and was lifted high into the middle falling at the feet of Noel-Williams who turned the ball goalwards to see it blocked on the line by Saunders and scrambled away.

With five minutes of regulation time left both sides made a change. Kettering made a like for like change with Jonny Edwards limping off to be replaced by Gary Hooper, for Leiston Cameron Rayworth replaced Ben Fowkes.

As the board to show the additional time to be played was being prepared, Kettering won a throw-in deep in Leiston territory on the open side. Powell threw it short to the feet of Ranger who returned the ball to Aaron who lifted a high ball into the penalty area. It dropped at the feet of Stohrer close to the penalty spot. Gary attempted to turn the ball goalwards, but with Saunders in close contact, the effort was blocked with the ball going to Hart on the edge of the penalty area. Ben took a touch before driving in a fierce low shot. Unsighted, with a defender in front of him, Johnson saw the ball late and could only block the slippery shot. Hooper reacted fastest and pounced on the loose ball and turned it goalwards once more only to see Johnson block the ball a second time sending it rolling along the six-yard line. Noel-Williams showed his goal scorers instinct by being in the right place to smash the ball home from close range. 2-1 Kettering  89 mins.

Kettering would have five extra minutes to defend their lead, two less than the previous week. Inside the first minute of added time saw Jezeph, who was not taking goal-kicks, booked for delaying in taking of a goal-kick. Leiston made a double substitution the next minute with Ethan Oldman and Harley Curtis replacing Ismael Fatadjo and Ryan Jarvis.

Noel-Williams swapped passes with York and carried the ball into the corner in order to run the clock out. It took two Leiston players to get the ball away from Isiah for a throw-in. Isiah kicked the ball about four yards straight to the feet of a defender but was deemed worthy of a booking by Mr Stetakovic, something when committed by Loza earlier in the game was ignored. However, Kettering managed to safely see out the game to the final whistle.

Full Time: Kettering Town 2  Leiston 1

The final whistle saw the Leiston players mob the referee complaining about something and their captain Rossi Jarvis booked for dissent.

Last week’s 97^th minute disappointment was emolliated to some degree by today’s 89^th minute winner from Isiah Noel-Williams, the same man who broke Farsley’s hearts with a 93^rd minute winner in Yorkshire. Kettering were matched for long periods by Leiston but Jezeph was duly tested throughout the game as Kettering’s back four performed well. Kettering benefitted from their early goal. This meant that the visitors could not sit back and defend like Bedford did meaning that the game stayed open. However, the team failed to build on their advantage by scoring a second leaving Leiston with hope of getting something from the game. The spirit of the side is such that despite conceding shortly before the end, they carried on pressing and were rewarded for it.

Of some concern to Richard Lavery, were the injuries to three players Edwards, Wilson and Fifield. Jonny being cup-tied has a fortnight to recover but with Kai having just returned from a lengthy injury one hopes that it is not serious.

Kettering Town yellow cards: Hart – handball, Johnson – foul  Jezeph – time wasting.

                                                  Noel-Williams – kicking the ball away.

Leiston yellow cards: Quantrell, Rossi Jarvis – dissent, plus one other

Attendance: 881

Kettering Town Man-of-the-Match – Jonny Edwards –  Another game another goal. The signing of Jonny has given the team something that it has not had for many seasons, a prolific goal scorer. This one was once again laid on a plate by Tyree Wilson showing how the teamwork between the players is growing like the Ranger / Noel-Williams pairing.

A special mention should be made for the media team which managed to rig an emergency PA system to allow the game to go ahead as without such a system the game would have to be postponed.