Kettering Town Walking Football Club

Back in July 2023 I joined Kettering Town with a view to setting up a Men’s Walking Football Team, from scratch. I had already managed to do this at Bedworth United, so I didn’t see any problem with doing the same here.

After a few posts on social media, we started attracting new players and held our training sessions at Latimer Park on Thursdays. The word spread and slowly, but surely we gained more players. The Club mainly focuses on fun, exercise and social interaction.
During late 2023 and early 2024, we arranged a few friendly games, our results were mixed, but I could see the potential to create something special. Not just in terms of the football, but in the strong relationships that were being forged.

In the February of 2024 we decided to enter the Northamptonshire Walking Football League. Our games were played over three months, with four or five – 15 minute matches being played on a Sunday morning. Again our results were mixed and although we finished bottom of the league, our performances were very good and really encouraging. We drew several games and the games we lost were only by one goal.

We continued to train throughout the summer, improving our game play and becoming much stronger. In the August we entered the Walking Football FA Cup and finished up as beaten finalists in the Northamptonshire regional finals. Our performances were much improved.
In September we played once again in the Northamptonshire Walking Football league, our results were much better and the players had really become a very close and cohesive unit. This time around we finished third in the league, narrowly missing out on second place.

In February 2025 we entered two teams, both playing in division two. Our Reds team and our Blacks team. After a frantic Spring season our Reds team finished runners up and only just missed out on top spot by one point. However, all was not lost as we gained promotion as runners up. Our Blacks team had played brilliantly, but had not faired so well, remaining in division two. With a squad now numbering 32 and an influx of new players, both teams worked hard and trained throughout the summer. It was great to see how the squad had grown and the unit becoming even more cohesive, with relationships amongst players growing stronger, we just needed to keep consistency, with the same players playing together regularly.  I now felt that we really did have something special.  I’ve always believed that to get the best out of players, you need to gel as a unit, working and playing for each other with positive encouragement and support.

Our hard work was about to be rewarded.  The Autumn league of 2025 saw us once again entering two teams into the league.  Our Blacks playing in division two and our newly promoted Reds, playing in division one.  Both teams played well and fought hard.  The Blacks struggled on occasion to field the same team of players, with holidays, injuries and family commitments.  Like I said, it’s very difficult to build success without consistency.   The Reds were more fortunate, managing to keep a team of nine players throughout the season, which meant that the unit was tight and everyone knew what was required. Each player being able to cover positions on field seamlessly.  Going into the last round of matches, things were very close in division one, just four teams separated by three points.  The Reds won their first three matches and a win in the fourth game would mean that they had a chance of being crowned Champions.  Five minutes in and a goal down, things were looking doubtful.  The players rallied together and thanks to their hard work, we emerged as victors winning by three goals to one.  Things were very tense as all of the results were tallied and goals were counted.  After what seemed like an age the officials told us that we had indeed won the league, what a moment, we had done it. Straight through from division two, to win division one at the first attempt.  The Blacks had battled well and despite some really encouraging results and some great football, they remained in division two.  I know that if we can build that consistency, within our Blacks team, keeping the same players available, we have an excellent chance of seeing two of our teams in division one, in the not too distant future.

If you would like to share in our future and give walking football a try, contact clarkmcowell@ktfccommunitytrust.com

Clark Cowell