Report
Buildbase FA Trophy Fourth Round
(Tie played at The Community Stadium)
Tuesday 19th January 2021
Brakes progressed into the last sixteen of the Buildbase FA Trophy on an extraordinary evening on Harbury Lane.
The game was switched to The Community Stadium after a failed Tuesday morning pitch inspection at Kettering’s Latimer Park, the second in three days after Saturday’s postponement, but nobody could have foreseen the events that were to unfold over the course of the evening. To coin a popular phrase heard many times throughout - You couldn’t make it up!
Paul Holleran made an enforced change to his starting eleven with Dan Meredith stepping into the midfield berth vacated by the cup tied Taylor Allen.
In Kettering’s defence they had not seen any on pitch action for two weeks, but Leamington made a lightning start to the game, opening the scoring inside the first minute.
In essence Kaiman Anderson was the architect, turning Connor Johnson superbly just past half way, the Referee spotting a shirt tug and halting play despite Anderson having got away from his man. It paid dividends, as from Steph Morley’s free kick delivery the ball was eventually played across the six yard box where Danny Waldron arrived to slide it home and give Brakes the perfect start.
Some scrappy play allowed Michael Richens a low strike at goal which went wide of the upright before things went from bad to worse for Paul Cox’s team with six minutes played. Poppies skipper Michael McGrath was apparently booked for dissent then almost immediately shown a red card, having apparently made some kind of contact with Referee Adrian Quelch. The player was clearly furious and was reluctant to leave the pitch at first, continuing his ill advised tirade towards the match official as he walked off.
The incident unsurprisingly annoyed the Kettering players and bench, and they fell further behind on 23 minutes when another expert delivery from Morley was powered home by the head of skipper Jack Edwards.
Just past the half hour mark it was three, the ball entering the net off the frame of the goal via Jack Lane straight from a left wing corner taken by Meredith.
Kettering almost snatched a goal back right on half time, Ryan Fryatt’s goalbound header from a corner requiring Weaver to make a last ditch effort to push the ball over the bar, but that was the only threat from the home side in a first half that was largely controlled by Leamington, and they asserted their dominance with goals.
However it appeared disaster was about to strike after the teams had left the field, with the floodlights on two pylons on the Sheepside going out.
After what must surely qualify as one of the longest half time intervals in football history, the game finally restarted at 1030pm, the FA having apparently allowed for more time to allow a local electrician and also Western Power to arrive to look at the cause of the problem, which was apparently blown fuses.
The extended break had clearly done little to cool the sense of injustice felt by the Kettering players as Connor Kennedy launched into an poorly timed challenge on Edwards within 30 seconds, and was possibly fortunate to only receive a yellow card.
To their credit however the Poppies went on to enjoy their best spell of the game, and certainly didn’t look like they were a man light. Ben Stephens fired a free kick over the bar, Morley coming closer at the other end from a similar set piece. Decarrey Sheriff fired straight at Jake Weaver, who then saved from Connor Johnson as he got his head to a corner.
Sheriff then struck the frame of the goal with a decent low strike, while Richens fired into the side netting. A fierce strike from the same player was bravely deflected over the bar by a blue shirt.
Kennedy was then the second Kettering player to see red for a late challenge on Waldron as he advanced towards the penalty area.
Waldon forced a good save from Collin as he cut in from the left and drove powerfully towards goal, but perhaps inevitably given what had gone before, a red card was the last notable talking point of the evening, as Johnson was shown a second yellow after going in late on substitute Junior English. He did not even wait for the Referee to take his cards out of his pocket before setting off for the dressing room, the frustrated screams of team mate Richens no doubt ringing in his ears.
Manager’s Reaction
‘We started off really well, came out of the blocks superbly, got an early goal and a good foothold in the game. The first sending off, we were ruthless after that against ten men and it was as good a first 45 minutes as we’ve played recently, I think.
‘Players that have been around the fringes of the squad like Dan Meredith, Kaiman Anderson, both put in good performances which is pleasing, but what’s gone on from half time onwards is disappointing. For us as a football club it’s disappointing as we had a similar issue (in January 2017) in a match against the same club. You can understand their frustration at why it went on so long, but the FA were making the decisions about how long we had to wait, and when we finally kicked off the second half we were clear with the players - they needed to control their emotions. There were a few tackles going in that were poor really, but we just wanted to try and take the sting out of the game.
‘You just want to get through the second half intact, and keep the same amount of players on the pitch, but unfortunately they’ve ended up with eight players, and I don’t think they’ve given the Referee much option really.’
[On the ‘extended’ half time break] ‘You’ve got to be mentally tough in those sorts of situations. With such a good first half for us I was just disappointed with the way that it went after that and everything that happened. But there were some great individual performances and we’re delighted to be through.’
Kettering Town: Adam Collin, Gary Stohrer, Connor Johnson, Jevan Anderson, Ryan Fryatt, Michael McGrath ©, Liam Hughes, Connor Kennedy, 24 Kyle Perry (14 Ben Stephens, 46), 10 Michael Richens, 11 Decarrey Sherriff.
Subs not used: 12 Sam Jones, 13 Jacob Wood, 15 Ben Milnes, 16 Khallem Bailey-Nicholls, 17 Ashanti Price, 18 David Chapman.
Leamington: Jake Weaver, Josh Martin (17 Connor Taylor, 86), Stephan Morley, Joe Clarke, Kyle Morrison, Jack Lane, Dan Meredith, Simeon Maye (12 Callum Gittings, 77), Kaiman Anderson, Jack Edwards (14 Junior English, 68), Danny Waldron.
Subs not used: 15 Lance Smith, Tyrell Hamilton.
Referee: Mr Adrian Quelch
Assistant Referees: Mr Adam Burgess & Mr Timothy Walker
Fourth Official: Mr Lee Hartley
Brakes Man of the Match: Dan Meredith.
Photos by Sally Ellis
