Horncastle 2s currently sat undefeated at the top of the league having been promoted last season with 15 wins from 18 games – 13 of those clean sheets. As such Kettering knew they had a battle on their hands and were more than ready come the first whistle.

From the get go Kettering pushed hard, the first opportunity coming in less than 60seconds as Ben Smith drove hard down the right wing into the corner, sadly the cross only going wide. Keeping the pressure on Kettering boxed the opposition in and recovered the ball quickly, this time Richard Lashbrooke showing his stick skills in beating two defenders and getting a cross to Lee Paris in the D with the shot only going wide by a few inches.

Again, the opposition were not able to clear their lines with another cross in to Lee Paris in D, only this time taking a deflection from a defender bobbling the ball. Lee managed to adjust and get his own deflection, the ball going just wide yet again making it it the third attack inside 3 minutes.

This time Horncastle managed to keep possession and work the ball up the right wing driving into the Kettering D and coming away with a penalty corner. The first shot was saved by keeper Brendan Reid with Horncastle putting the rebound wide showing they were clearly a threat given the chance.

Just a few minutes later, Kettering ended up with another scoring opportunity, this time in the form of their own penalty corner. In similar fashion to the previous penalty corner at the other end of the pitch, the keeper saved the shot and cleared the lines. Horncastle quickly countered with most of the Kettering team still in the opposition D. Brendan Reid made a strong save, deflecting the ball past the far post. However a Horncastle attacker was flying in for the rebound only to be beaten by Samul Tattersall who not only got their first, but used a nice bit of skill to turn the man and clear the ball.

From the side line hit that followed, Horncastle drove the ball in and managed to come away with another penalty corner. Again Brendan Reid saved the strike, the follow up this time was a lot more scrappy, but still Horncastle got a strike away just inside the post only for Mike Lavender to make a goal line save and clear the ball.

The next 5 minutes was all Kettering, although the opposition were barely able to get hold of the ball they did manage to keep the Kettering attack at bay, if only for a short while. Finally the opportunity came and on the 22nd minute Ollie Smith drove down the middle beating two defenders in the process and putting a cross into the D to a waiting Sam May. Sam gathered the ball well, but outnumbered 3-1 in the D was unable to get the shot and Horncastle were able to clear.

However, still unable to keep possession, they never made it to the Kettering D before being stripped off possession. The ball quickly worked its way up through the Kettering attack with Ollie Smith driving down the left again. The following cross was superb in managing to dissect all three of Horncastle's defenders. However, it also found the gap between Kettering's three attackers also in the D, the ball managing to go across the whole D and through all 6 players players in it.

Horncastle very quickly countered, and managed to get a forward behind the defense with only the keeper to beat, had all the time he needed to get away a near perfect strike from the top of the D hitting the inner sideboard of the goal. 1-0 to Horncastle on the 27th minute.

The goal seemed to rejuvenise the opposition and Horncastle started playing like the league leaders they were, almost replicating Kettering's first 25minutes in managing to retain almost exclusive possession and constantly probing the the Kettering D. However, even without possession, Kettering managed to keep Horncastle mostly at bay, with the opposition only managing two goal scoring opportunities in the final 8 minutes.

The first came from an initial long ball from the attack which took a deflection from a Kettering defender sending it very wide of the intended forward, but still towards the goal. To prevent the long corner, Brendan Reid went to clear. However, clear the ball he did not. With an unusual mistake from the otherwise stalwart keeper, Brendan unintentionally passed the ball quite passively straight to the oncoming attacker. With no defender in site, the Horncastle attacker clearly couldn’t believe his luck to find himself one one with the keeper. However, Brendan made sure to right the mistake and put in a great save. Though it wasn’t enough to redeem himself from getting DoD.

The second chance followed on from the long corner, an attacker driving the ball in from the right along the back line, the cross managing to find a gap in the Kettering defense, and lucky for Kettering, it found the gap in Horncastle's attack as well. The half time whistle followed shortly after, with the teams going in at 1-0 to Horncastle.

Kettering were straight out the blocks from the restart winning another penalty corner in the 1st minute. However, the injected ball could not be kept under control and went loose allowing Horncastle to easily clear their lines and knocking the steam out of Kettering's immediate pressure.

After the fumble the game swung very much into Horncastles favour, Kettering only managing to get two shots on goal in the following 25 minutes. The first from Lee Paris on the 47th minute and and the second from Adam Duell on the 52nd, both going wide. Although rarely getting outside their half, the Kettering defense held very well, not allowing the opposition any opportunity to score despite them having all the possession. Frustrations clearly showing, as the whistle blew against Kettering for a foul, Neil Freeman hit the ball away after the ball hit his foot. On a 50/50 call whether he swung pre or post the whistle, the umpire sent him to cool off for two minutes on the 24th minute.

On the 25th minute, things appeared to go from bad to worse for Kettering. After the intense barrage of attacks from the opposition, Horncastle finally managed to get into a goal scoring opportunity. The first strike was saved by the keeper, but in the follow up as Brendan Reid went to clear the ball, he ended up going through the attacker. However, the Horncastle attacker seeing the keeper out of position managed to get the ball across to another forward. Horncastle would have duly scored had it not been stopped on the line by Ben Smith, who comfortably cleared and won several man of the match votes in the process. The shot and subsequent save meant advantage was over so the keepers foul did not result in a penalty corner, however it did not stop the keeper from being yellow carded.

Being 9 men down for the next couple minutes and 10 down for nearly the remainder of the game, most would have thought the league leaders would have put the game to bed. However, the yellow card incident seem to reinvigorate Kettering and that was the last time Horncastle found themselves in the Kettering D, and when the 10th man joined back, Horncastle never saw the final quarter of the pitch again. The perfect reaction to losing your keeper!

It was now Kettering's turn to barrage Horncastle with attack, after attack, after attack, Horncastle barely making out of their D before being stripped of possession. The first real opportunity came from a penalty corner on the 28th minute. Saved by the keeper, the Horncastle defense cleared the ball wide. Kettering were straight back in the D from the from the side line ball coming away with another penalty corner. This time, the ball was deflected wide by a defender. The resulting long corner turned into another penalty corner. Again saved by the keeper, the follow up by Kettering was very scrappy with the final shot going ever so wide but hitting a Horncastle foot before going off the back line leading to yet another penalty corner. The next penalty corner the strike ended up going wide, but before the ball cleared the backline the umpire had already blown for the opposition leaving the halfway line too early for yet another penalty corner!

The following penalty corner resulted in a strike from Adam Duell at the top the D, stopped only by an opposition foot on the line, the calls ringing out for a penalty flick! However, the ball had never left the D on the ejection, so reset Kettering did for another penalty corner. Ensuring the ball left the D, the strike was this time a little bit slower allowing the keeper to get in position for the save. However Horncastle were unable to clear the lines and the following strike hit the defender stood on the goal line clearly in the body, this time the umpire had no choice but toward the penalty flick.

After last week where nobody volunteered and Richard Lashbrooke was volun-told (we wont comment on what happened next last time), Ben Smith’s arm went straight up - this was his. With no other volunteers, he approached the penalty spot as if he had done so a thousand times. With the whole game riding on this flick, it was the 32nd minute after all, Ben handled the pressure well and proceeded to bury the ball in the inner side netting of the goal, the keeper not standing a chance and winning the rest of the man of the match votes.

The final 3mintues Horncastle stepped up the intensity again, but in trying to force the game their way ended up making more unforced errors than nearly the rest of the game. The game finished 1-1 in the end, Horncastle not winning for the first time this season and Kettering showing they clearly have what it to takes to compete with the top of the table.

As already mentioned, Ben Smith was awarded Man of the Match for his overall tenacity at the back with most comments stating he still would have won even if he hadn’t made a goal line save of scored the flick. DoD went to Brendan Reid for passing to the opposition attacker who was on his own at the top of the D, however it did highlight that Kettering should not back off getting back when it “seems” like the ball will be cleared.

Apart from maybe a slow period between the 1st and 25th minute of the second half, Kettering’s performance was largely a strong one, especially after the keeper had been sent off. Hopefully it wont be needed again to inject the sort of play and tenacity seen in the closing 10minutes of Saturday’s game and that it can be carried on into the next game against March Town 2s on Halloween at Wrenn.