It was a long way to travel for the Kettering 11 who came to face the current table leaders at
Norwich City on the H 2 O pitch. It was off to a good start as Kettering stayed compact, hoping
to make themselves difficult to overcome for the plentiful and youthful Norwich side. Much to
their dismay however, it was only Norwich’s second short corner 10 minutes in that saw they
take the lead with a deflection into Kettering’s net. Nevertheless, Kettering remained
steadfast in their resolve and continued their defensive approach with a heroic goal-line save
from Ross Mathieson sending the ball hurtling over the crossbar to keep the score at 1-0 for
a time. They held out for longer this time but 15 minutes after their previous success,
Norwich prevailed in scoring another short corner with a flick from the top of the D. Kettering
were not without some attacks of their own this half though, with long balls and aerials
allowing them to occasionally test Norwich’s defence. They even managed to win
themselves a short corner, but this yielded no fruit. In the closing moments of the half, a turn-
over from Kettering on their own 23 saw Norwich with the ball on Kettering’s baseline where
they were able to send the ball over Matt, landing in the hands of a Norwich forward in the
mouth of the goal who slotted it away to put the home side in a commanding 3-0 lead.

With nothing to lose, Kettering started putting the pressure on in the second half winning a
short corner almost immediately into the half. Regrettably, Michael Crane’s deflection at the
back post only found the Norwich goalkeeper. Tenaciously, Kettering kept up the offensive
with numerous short corners but alas, none of them bore fruit with one even showcasing a
very suspicious routine. Calculated forward leading from Harry Tanser and consistent
delivery from Grant Carlin so Norwich’s goalkeeper tested but he seemed impervious to their
efforts. It wasn’t like Norwich didn’t have their fair share of attacks in the second half with
Kettering stoically holding onto the status quo. One such noteworthy attack saw the Norwich
forward come racing past Ed Jennings to find themselves with the ball in Kettering’s D but
fortunately poor control by the supporting forward saw Kettering in this instance. Kettering
gave all they had for the remainder of this half and were rewarded with a goalless second
half to end the game 0-3 for Norwich.