Kettering 1-3 Loughborough Town

Kettering Ladies XI 1-3 Loughborough Town

This week's opposition provided a tougher test for the ever-evolving Kettering side in their third friendly before the league starts. Despite the hot conditions the home side were unlucky to not go ahead in the first half as a number of shots on goal were saved by some extraordinary goalkeeping skills. Liz Metcalfe was particularly unlucky to not see the side go ahead as her composed, well-placed shot looked like it was heading in to the near post, only to be touched away by the keeper in the last instant!
Megan Forader and Sophie Reynolds were also unfortunate to not find the back of the net as their attacking pressure found them both in great positions in front of the goal, but it was our youngster Daisy-Mae ........ who was given the player of the match vote for her own excellent goalkeeping display at the other end of the pitch. Where Loughborough did break through to get shots away Daisy held strong and showed a natural maturity and dominance in the goal beyond that of her 14 years.
In the second half some positions were changed and fatigue was also starting to set in, which led to a brief period of confusion and gave Loughborough the opportunity to score 2 goals that potentially could have been avoided based on the first half performance. Kettering found themselves 3-0 down after a penalty corner was also converted so the side had to dig deep. Bearing in mind the point of a friendly is to try different tactics and players in different roles, this is then what happened and Kettering finished the game with a flourish of pressure, being rewarded with a number of penalty corners, where one of these was smashed into the near post by Reynolds to give Kettering a deserved goal. There was a real team effort and ethos in today's game with experience and youth combining well in all areas of the pitch. With two more friendlies to play and performances getting better and better each week, Kettering should find they hit the ground running when they face Tamworth at the start of October.