Stone’s demise leads to Kettering satisfaction.

Kettering Ladies XI were back to winning ways this weekend with a novelty 14 strong squad, home to visitors Stone. The home side were determined to take something from the game especially as the visiting side only had 11 players. The first 10 minutes of the game saw Kettering moving the ball fluidly across the pitch and quickly into attack, catching the away side off guard a number of times. It was from one of these attacks that saw Mally Dolphin win a free hit which quick-thinking Cath Irvin self-passed and crossed into the circle for Maria Higgins to get on the end of and impressively loft the ball into the net. Having scored so early in the game meant that Stone also then stepped up their play with a couple of penetrating runs by individuals in their team nearly drawing them level. Fortunately the defence stayed strong led particularly well by player of the match, Charlie Fowle. Being only 1-0 ahead at half time, Kettering knew they needed to step it up a gear to consolidate their lead and the second half didn’t disappoint. Tireless work from Linzi Webster in the centre of the field meant that their strongest player was marked out of the game also meaning that the home defence started to push higher up the pitch piling the pressure on the away team. The second goal was almost a replica of the first as Michelle Tanser picked up the ball in defence, played it out to Irvin who again crossed for Higgins to reverse lift the ball over the keeper, a champagne moment for sure! The final goal came from Megan Forader’s electric pace that saw her sail past the defence, enter the circle and pretty much pass the ball into the goal. Hopefully these goal scoring ways become a habit for Kettering in their future games and with a tough game against Towcestor coming up next week they need to make sure all opportunities are tucked away.