Kettering slay Dragons! (Eventually)

Kettering O45s took their first steps towards a Lee Valley final with an absorbing win against a youthful Norwich Dragons outfit who came with the intention of Cup glory.
Despite conceding an average of 5 year’s per player Kettering started quickly and after only two minutes Shez Coe opened the scoring after a fine dribble inside the D beating four players before slotting home. The visitors, stung by this, roared back and took the game to Kettering using their excellent passing around the pitch to stretch the game. They managed to equalise after twenty minutes. Kettering still managed to create the better open play chances and were unfortunate not to go ahead before the break.
The second half was an end to end affair but came to life with 5 minutes to go when a Norwich goal was correctly disallowed for an earlier obstruction. This led to the Norwich skipper seeing yellow but Kettering were unable to press home the extra player advantage and despite applying plenty of pressure were unable to find the killer touch and the game ended 1-1 and moved to penalty strokes allowing keeper Michele Collins to secure a unanimous player of the match award.
Kettering: Shez Coe - penalty saved - 0-0
Norwich : Player 1 - penalty saved - goalie moved to early! Retaken - scored 0-1
Kettering: :Mandy Starsmore-Young - scored - 1-1
Norwich: Player 2 - penalty saved - 1-1
Kettering: Chris Roland-Jones - penalty saved 1-1
Norwich: Player 3 - penalty saved - 1-1
Kettering: Debbie Mason - scored - 2-1
Norwich: Player 4 - penalty saved- 2-1
Kettering: Julia Telford - scored 3-1

A really hard game where Kettering battled throughout and each Kettering Player gave everything in beating a younger outfit who will almost certainly go close to winning the Plate competition while Kettering plan for the round of 16.