Wenje bags a brace on debut

The Men’s 3rd team continued their pre-season preparations with a game against an understrength Northampton Saints 7 team. The game gave debuts to Tom Sheffield, Peter Wenje, Ed Jennings and Justin Smith, whilst Ben Smith, Bill Greenwood and Vince Davy made their first appearance of the season. Barry Coe and George York dropped down to help the team.

However, due to Northampton only having 6 players available, it saw George, Vince, Bill, Tom and Dan Carter starting for the opposition. Northampton also played without a recognised goalkeeper in the first half.

In a generally scrappy first half, it was the visitors who enjoyed possession and territorial advantage, but the lack of a goal keeper, and lack of shape at the back, was exposed as Kettering scored two counter-attacking goals, both scored by Peter Wenje in the 4th and 33rd minutes. Sandwiched in between these goals was a goal from Tim McDowell. After a period of sustained pressure down the right, Ben Smith pulled the ball back to the edge of the ‘D’, where Tim placed past the scrambling defenders.

For the Second half, Barry and Ben Smith switched to the Northampton team, with Dan and Tom reverting to Kettering.

The pattern of the first half was matched in the second, where the team without the goalkeeper (Kettering) enjoying the possession and territory, but the other team taking advantage to score the goals on the counter attack, with Northampton scoring twice in the 52nd and 69th minutes.

There is plenty of optimism in the Kettering camp for the season ahead especially with all the new blood coming into the squad. The defensive and goal-scoring capabilities of the team will be enhanced by the addition of Ed Jennings and Peter Wenje respectively.

Things still remain to work on as the team move through their pre-season. For example, the better quality and speed of passing was displayed by the visitors. However, once the squad is settled and people get used to playing with each other, the standard of play will improve.