Poppies slump 1-0 at home to Cambridge Utd

Kettering Town 0

Cambridge Utd 1
Crow 75

Kettering Town host Blue Square Premier League Cambridge Utd who despite a decent start to the season have struggled for consistency and slipped down the table to sit just above the relegation zone. However their recent draw with Oxford Utd and Saturday's 1-0 victory at Barrow suggest they are beginning to recover some of their earlier form. Lee Harper starts Elliott Charles and the other recent signing Ebigbo starts on the bench for the Poppies.

A lively start for both teams and Kettering having a little more of the possession and looking dangerous on the break in the early stages but neither team yet able to produce the final quality ball to unlock the opposing defence. Simon Brown has been the busier of the two keepers in the first 10 minutes with Appiah and Boucaud coming closest to breaking the deadlock.

A break by Utd and Rory McAuley tests Nathan Abbey who saves comfortably. A Neilson ball over the top saw Danny Crow beat the offside trap but his strike was off-target and flashed across the face of the Poppies goal. The rain is lashing down at the Elgoods Brewery Arena making conditions a little more difficult for both teams but the football is flowing quite well during the first 20 minutes.

A good spell of pressure coming in from Kettering as a John Dempster header is blocked for a corner and Marcus Kelly fires just wide as he connects with the ball played into the box. A foul by Paul Carden on Jordan Hadfield and the Utd player goes into the referee's notebook. With 30 minutes gone Kettering have a slight edge in terms of possession but still unable to find a way to break the deadlock.

More pressure from Kettering and they win a corner which is drilled into the box but eventually cleared by the hard-working visiting defence. Perhaps Kettering's best chance so far as Kwesi Appiah breaks clear and as Jordan Hadfield connects very cleanly with the pass a superb save by Simon Brown denies what should have been the vital breakthrough. A late chance for Utd before the first 45 minutes ended as a corner was met by Rory McAuley but his header was cleared upfield and Kettering won a corner themselves but again the ball into the box wasn't of the necessary quality.

Half-time:   Kettering Town 0 Cambridge Utd 0

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