Genovese signs another midfielder

Nineteen year-old Marcus Sawyer became the latest player to sign for Kettering Town under manager Dominic Genovese, after the young midfielder apparently impressed during training sessions at Rockingham Road.

The left-sided midfielder played in the same QPR side as Richard Graham and has also played for Harrow Borough, Edgware Town, Ruislip Manor and earlier this year was playing for University side Team Bath FC.

Poor Poppies lose to bottom club

Kettering Town 1 Braintree Town 2

Despite having a full squad to chose from Dominic Genovese saw his side beaten at home by the bottom club, Braintree Town, who had previously leaked 10 goals in 3 games and scored just one. The Iron left Rockingham Rd with their first win of the season and the home supporters feeling bewildered.

Poppies struggle at Hornchurch

Hornchurch 1 Kettering Town 1

It took around 60 seconds for Hornchurch to score their first goal of the new season when Scott Gooding shook off some slack marking by Wayne Diuk and headed past the diving Paul Pettinger to put the home side in front.

Poppies secure away win at Boro'

Harrow Borough 1 Kettering Town 2

Kettering secured their second win in two games in the Ryman League Premier Division last night despite falling behind mid-way through the first-half to a very bad judgement error by goalkeeper Paul Pettinger. Dominic Genovese's men recovered their composure and with the help of two goals from midfielder Matt Murphy, narrowly defeated a battling Harrow Borough.

Poppies off to a winning start

Kettering Town 2 Northwood 1

Kettering Town got off to a winning start in the Rymans League Premier Division at Rockingham Road this afternoon against newly-promoted Northwood, with Paul Fewings (below left) scoring the winning goal (his first for the club) with 20 minutes left of the match.

Brett Solkhon got the home side off to a flying start within the first two minutes when he headed home from an Ian King corner, but by half-time the visitors had pulled back on equal terms with Brian Fitzgerald the Wood's scorer in the 17th minute. On-loan striker Lee Clarke provided the cross that Paul Fewing met first and slid past the visitor's keeper for the winner.

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Kettering: Pettinger, Matthews (capt), Lodge, Murphy, Solkhon, Thomas, Diuk (Paschalis 70), Butterworth, Fewings (Turner 85), Clarke, King. Subs: Gordon, Boyle-Chong, Gourlay.

Lee Clarke back on loan

Kettering manager Dominic Genovese has secured the services of Peterborough Utd's Lee Clarke in a 3 month loan deal which sees the Posh striker return to Rockingham Rd just in time for the season opener against Northwood this Saturday.

Clarke has already scored two hat-tricks for Posh Reserves in preseason matches and as Poppies boss Genovese explained, "We all know what our problem was last season in just not scoring enough goals. Lee is in good form and will give us another string to our bow as well as giving some healthy competition to our front men."

Thomas swaps Jamaica for Rockingham Road

Poppies manager Dominic Genovese received an unexpected boost yesterday when an administration mix-up left Peterborough Utd youngster Bradley Thomas without a passport in time for his trip to Jamaica, where he was due to join up with the rest of the Jamaican under-21 squad.

Now instead of the trip to Jamaica, Thomas has signed a 3 month loan deal to play for Kettering Town in the Ryman Premier League. Thomas provides an excellent replacement in defence while Craig Norman sits out the first three matches of the season serving his suspension and is almost certain to be included in Saturday's starting lineup against Northwood at Rockingham Road.

"I've watched him several times playing for Peterborough's reserve side and liked what I saw," said Genovese. "He's big, strong and showed against Leeds that he enjoys a good old tussle. I'm sure he'll do well with us."

Single goal enough for Steelmen to overcome Poppies

Kettering Town's Jekyll & Hyde preseason continued last night as they went down 1-0 to Corby Town at Rockingham Triangle in what seemed a rather pointless exercise following Dominic Genovese's earlier comments. "The last thing I want is for someone to get hurt before Saturday so I will be playing two teams. The first-half will be pretty much the first-choice side but after the break I will have a look at a few others."

If the first-choice players were taking it easy trying to (understandably) avoid injury it can't have been much of a realistic workout and surely the best way to ensure they avoided injury was not risk them playing at all. So why didn't we play the rest of the squad for the whole match and take the rare opportunity to get a good look at some of those that will no doubt be used as cover sometime during the coming season.

"I'm sure they'll be up for it, though. Lee Glover's got them playing well and they will want to put one over us" continued Genovese. That they did, and in the process highlighted once again that we still have a worrying problem in the goalscoring department that will surely need to be sorted out before the visit of Northwood on Saturday.

Genovese signs three players for Kettering

Kettering Town have finally completed the signing of ex-Oxford Utd midfielder Matt Murphy who joins fellow midfielder Ian King at Rockingham Road after the ex-Nene Park player was signed by Poppies manager Dominic Genovese earlier this week.

A third midfielder, 19 year-old Eliot Paschalis, was added to the Poppies roster by Genovese on Thursday, bringing the number of players in the squad so far to 19. With just over one week to go before the season kicks-off in earnest, Genovese is still looking around, commenting: "I'm trying to get Bradley Thomas on loan (from Peterborough United) and I should know more over the weekend."

Poppies draw 3-3 with Leeds

Kettering Town drew 3-3 last night against a Leeds Utd XI that contained several young players pushing for their places in Peter Reid's full Premiership side and were watched by a crowd of 1,425 supporters, easily the largest attendance of their preseason matches.

Kettering's goals came from Matt Murphy, who scored twice, and striker Brian Hardie as the home side were looking for what would have been their first win of the preseason. However, Leeds Utd's midfield rising star James Milner hit a hat-trick to level the scoreline and the match eventually ended up honours even with the illustrious visitors from Elland Road.

Milner is still incredibly only 17 years-old but has already impressed Utd's boss Peter Reid both at Premiership and England under-17 level enough to warrant inclusion in the first-team squad and became the second-youngest player ever in the Premiership during last season when he made his first team debut at West Ham Utd.

After last night's two goals Matt Murphy is ironically Kettering's top scorer of the preseason campaign (so far) with three goals to his credit despite still not yet putting pen to paper, although Poppies boss Dominic Genovese is hoping the cultured midfielder will decide to commit to Rockingham Road for the coming season.

Poppies on the receiving end against Dees

Kettering Town 0 Dundee XI 4

Scottish Premier side Dundee dominated the first-half at Rockingham Road against a sometimes overwhelmed home side, but only managed to find the net once before the break. On 36 minutes Steve Lovell fired the visitors in front after ghosting past two defenders and shooting past Paul Pettinger in the Poppies goal.

In the second-half Dundee continued where they'd left off in the first-half and were soon 2-0 up when in the 47th minute, Nacho Novo stabbed home from close-in after a period of sustained pressure from the Dees. Kettering fought their way back into the game but still couldn't find the finishing touch that was displayed against the Cobblers.

As the game progressed and the home side began to tire, Dundee again picked up the pace and substitute Jonay Hernandez fired the Dees 3-0 in front with 15 minutes left. The scoring was completed on 83 minutes by Nacho Novo who turned smartly and blasted the ball past Pettinger and into the net to score his second goal of the night and make the final score 4-0 to Dundee.

Kettering Town: Pettinger, Lodge, Matthews, Solkhon, Norman, Diuk, Murphy, King, Fewings, Asombang, Graham. Subs: Turner, McKenzie, Hardie, Paschalis, Boyle-Chong, Dancy, Gordon, Pepper.

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