Marna's early strike gives Poppies narrow win over struggling Lewes

March 17, 2009—

Kettering Town 1
Marna 24

Lewes 0

Kettering Town play their fifth home match in-a-row at the A-Line Arena on Tuesday night when they host struggling Lewes, currently lying rock-bottom of the Conference.

A relatively quiet start to the match as Mark Cooper's player reshuffle settles into place, with Jean-Paul Marna, Alfie Potter and Darren Wrack replace Solkhon, Westcarr and Beardsley in the starting lineup. Kettering's best chance of the early stages came in from Alfie Potter but nobody was able to steer in into the net and the resulting corner was cleared by the Lewes' defence.

GOAL:   Good approach play by the home side as Gareth Seddon surges forward into the box and shapes to shoot but picks out Jean-Paul Marna who buries the ball from close-into the bottom corner to give Kettering a vital 1-0 lead in the 24th minute.

The home side continue to press their visitors back as Andre Boucaud plays in Richard Graham and the Poppies winger finds Gareth Seddon but Kettering's current top scorer is closed down and the Rook's defence is able to block the effort and clear the resulting corner.

Free-kick into the box by Luke Potter but it's over-hit slightly and eludes the heads of Seddon and Dempster going harmlessly behind for a goal kick. Half-time approaching at the A-Line as Kettering still in front by the narrowest of margins courtesy of Marna's 24th minute strike.

Half-time: Kettering Town 1 Lewes 0

The second 45 minute period gets underway and despite their lowly position the visitors certainly aren't rolling over so far and as long as there's just one goal in it the game is far from resolved. A lot of play in the middle third in the early stages of the second-half. Harper had to be alert to dive on a loose ball as Lewes broke forward rapidly, almost catching the home defence unawares.

Kettering looking a little flat at the moment as Lewes having more of the possession. Wheeler comes on to replace Henry for Lewes. Harper holds onto a strike from the substitute Wheeler as Kettering struggle to create anything in the final third so far in this second period.

Into the final quarter of the match and it's still up for grabs at this point with Kettering holding onto their slender lead and Lewes pressing for an equaliser. Alfie Potter surges down the line trying to get something going with fifteen minutes remaining but the move finally ends in a goal-kick to Lewes.

A double substitution on 76 minutes as Chris Beardsley replaces Jean-Paul Marna and Craig Westcarr is brought on to replace Gareth Seddon. Late in the match and the referee shows the yellow card to Chris Beardsley shortly after the Poppies striker's introduction to the proceedings.

Into the last five minutes of normal time and Shaun Wilkinson is booked as both managers take the opportunity to make their final substitutions, Andrew Wilkinson comes on for Sam Fisk and Ange Lorougnon comes on for Richard Graham.

Three minutes of stoppage time added on for Kettering to defend their narrow advantage and claim the three points. Lorougnon almost wrapped it up with a header but Lewes put it out for a corner and as the ball comes back into play the referee blow the final whistle. Certainly not the best performance by Kettering but a vital result and hopefully they can build on the win with the visit of Oxford Utd coming up in two days time.

Att: 867

Kettering Town: Harper, Bennett, Dempster, Geohaghon, L.Potter, A.Potter, Wrack, Boucaud, R.Graham, Seddon, Marna. Subs: Beardsley(Marba 77), Lorougnon, Lee, Solkhon, Westcarr(Seddon 77).

Lewes: Banks, Barness, Cullip, Breach, Fisk, Henry, Wilkinson, Keehan, Foreman, Cox, Rivers. Subs: Butters, Wheeler(Henry 62), Storrie(Cox 72), Liburd, Wilkinson.