Men's 3rd XI lose in New Year friendly

Kettering Men's 3rd team played a friendly away against Atherstone - the match was pretty even but Kettering came off second best in terms of the scoreline.

12 year old Alistair Brooking made his debut in goal for Kettering and played well. The visitors took a while took to get into their stride and conceded the first goal after about 10 minutes. This spurred Kettering into action and they started to assert themselves on the match. James Hogg was through on goal when he was upended by the Atherstone keeper and a penalty flick was awarded. Up stepped skipper Neil Manley and although his shot sent the goalie the wrong way, it also narrowly missed the post.

Brooking made an excellent save high to his left to keep the score at 1-0 at half-time.

After the interval, Kettering shot themselves in the foot when they conceded a second goal. Undeterred, the visitors continued to press Atherstone high up the pitch with an aim of gaining cheap possession. The tactic was only partially successful because the ball was not retained long enough for Kettering to play their preferred passing style.

Richard Middleton was close to pulling a goal back but his penalty corner strike unluckily came back off a post. At the other end, Atherstone made no mistake with their set-piece and scored their third.

The young Kettering side did not let their heads drop and continued to press forward. During another short corner, Phil Coward slipped awkwardly and left the field with suspected knee ligament damage. He will be a big loss to the team.

With minutes remaining, Kettering got their deserved goal. A quick long corner was taken and the combination of George York and Harry Tanser created a scoring opportunity. The initial shot was saved but Hogg was on hand to tuck in the rebound at the far post.

Next week, Kettering restart their league campaign and will look to re-display their "pass and move" style.