Missed Opportunity!

The half term week has been difficult for the club regarding player availability. After starting the week with just 6 available players, the 4's just about managed to get a full 11 on to the pitch with the addition of Matt Coe in goal and Adam Duell in midfield from the 2 team. A couple of the talented young players had been promoted to the 3's to cover their shortfall.

4's arrived at the exposed St Ives pitch with storm Brian providing a strong cross wind and finding that the St Ives team had also suffered from player availability and could only field 10 players. Both teams anchored the bottom of the table, hadn't scored many goals between them so Kettering sensed an opportunity to get some points on the board.

The first half started with both teams finding their way a couple of chances at either end were created. the best of which saw Mike Tanser throwing himself full length on the pitch to slide and try to reach the powerful cross coming in. he just got friction burns for his troubles. Kettering had the greater possession in the first half trying to make the extra man tell. Good passing and movement again created chances against a static defense but there was an inability to convert.

The St Ives team were happy to sit back and then hit on the break. Three or four experienced players gave the defense a few headaches with their robust play and passing. Despite a couple of chances going wide the away team held firm and went in to the half time break with the scores level.

The 4's started the second half with ambitions of pressing the advantage and winning the match. But within a couple of minutes of the restart disaster struck . A series of defensive lapses gave away a short corner which resulted in a St Ives player striking the ball and scoring off of the left hand post. This seemed to deflate the Kettering team. Despite pushing forward with some decisive play and showing great industry in midfield the ball just couldn't get in the D. On the few occasions it did, the home defense crowded out any efforts on goal.

With Kettering tiring and pushing forward the gaps in midfield grew. St Ives stuck to their game so that when play broke down they were hitting speculative long balls out to their front players. Who would turn try to turn the defense to be in on goal. This tactic continued and before long it paid off with the defenders being isolated. A clinical finish ensued and 4's were 2 down. This knocked the confidence of the away team. The Home team despite tiring ,were invigorated pushing forward with more energy. This caused more mistakes and poor decisions to be made by Kettering. Two more goals were scored to close out a disappointing performance by Kettering leaving them with a sense of what could have been.

Here is St Ives view of things:-
St Ives version of events