With the faint dawn of winter in the air, Kettering set out early in the morning for their away trip to Felixstowe with a devoted 12 hoping to continue their upward trajectory. A rare on-time arrival for Ross at the clubhouse meet time already spelled good omens for the coming odyssey. Upon arrival, Kettering were greeted with the gusty winds of the North Sea and gathered themselves in a changing room that almost demanded a larger squad than was present.

A length warmup didn’t seem to do Kettering well Felixstowe had the upper hand in the opening minutes and a generous pass from Harry Tanser to one of Felixstowe’s forwards saw Kettering go 0-1 down not long into the game. Fortunately this seemed to wake Kettering up who started finding success going forwards, with the ball whizzing across the Felixstowe D numerous times. Halfway into the half, Lewis found himself with the ball in the middle of the 23 and after a strong drive into the D, he buried the ball into the netting to make the score even once again. The remainder of the half saw opportunities at both ends but neither side prevailed in pulling ahead as the half drew to a close.
The second half saw Kettering start far better than the first and it only took a few minutes for Harry to put the visitors into the lead with a goal from a penalty corner. Neither side seemed to wane as the ball went from end to end with both sides being resolute in their defence.

Unfortunately for Kettering, Andy Sellers found himself on the sideline for 2 minutes with 10 minutes to go and Felixstowe were able to convert on their numeric advantage to equalise the score at 2-2. Determined not to go away empty-handed, Kettering did not dip their energy and only a few minutes later, Lewis Pywell once again found himself on with the ball just outside the D and slotted the ball away into the bottom corner on his reverse to secure a 1 goal lead. Kettering were able to lock in 3 points with some game-management and enjoyed some chips on the pier after some excellent hospitality.

MoM – Lewis Pywell
DoD – Harry Tanser / Harry Dell’utri
Magic Moment – Lewis Pywell