Poppies win 2-1 at home to Tamworth - keep 100% start to campaign

Kettering Town 2
Westcarr 50
Bridges 61

Tamworth 1
Briscoe 90

Poppies boss Mark Cooper is without top scorer Jean-Paul Marna against his former club for this afternoon's fixture as the striker was suffering with a tight hamstring in the latter stages of Saturday's win at Worcester and will rest the injury to be fit for the trip to Leigh RMI this Saturday. Jon Brady is also out and Mark Rawle is on the bench. Craig Westcarr, Steve Burton and Jon Howe come into the starting lineup.

A first 45 minute period of several half-chances as both teams tried to work the final ball through but neither keeper was troubled too much on a hot afternoon at the A-Line Arena. The home side began to pressure the visitors more towards the end of the first-half but still couldn't find the breakthrough and the two teams went into the dressing rooms still deadlocked.

Half-time: Kettering Town 0 Tamworth 0

Poppies win 3-2 at Worcester City to maintain 100% start to season

Worcester City 2
Webster 5
Clegg 45

Kettering Town 3
Dempster 12
Marna 24, 43

Kettering Town manager Mark Cooper opted to bring David Bridges straight into the starting lineup against Worcester City at St George's Lane. Craig Westcarr joins Jon Howe on the Poppies bench.

A disastrous start for Kettering with only 5 minutes on the clock when Mark Danks found Adam Webster who fired the ball into the top corner past Harper to put the home side 1-0 up. Both teams were trying to settle down after a brisk start and at this point it looked like more goals would follow.

It took Kettering just seven minutes to get back on level terms when Tommy Jaszczun's corner was headed in at the far post by John Dempster to make it 1-1 on 12 minutes. Chris Smith was the first player to incur the referee's wrath and a yellow card as the two sides continued to struggle to try and gain control of the match.

Poppies hammer Vauxhall 6-0 ... Motors keeper walks off

Kettering Town 6
Dempster 44
Marna 51, 64
Griffiths og 59
Burton 70
Malcolm 86

Vauxhall Motors 0

Kettering Town manager Mark Cooper wasted no time in introducing recent signing Lee Harper into the Poppies starting lineup between the posts against Vauxhall Motors and he is joined by winger Joe Howe who was signed yesterday.

A relatively quiet first period as the home side settled into the match and the visitors came determined not to repeat their defensive frailties which saw them concede 6 goals in 25 minutes on Monday night. The eventual breakthrough came a minute before the break in the shape of John Dempster who gave Kettering a narrow 1-0 lead going into the dressing rooms for their half-time cuppa.

Half-time: Kettering Town 1 Vauxhall Motors 0

Poppies sign keeper and a forward

New signing Lee Harper will go straight into the Poppies starting for Saturday's match and will bring a wealth of experience between the posts to the club. The 35 yr-old goalkeeper has 300 Football League appearances under his belt and his former clubs include Sittingbourne, Arsenal, QPR, Walsall, Northampton Town and most recently MK Dons.

Signed just before the deadline for Saturday's match, winger Joe Howe is also included in Mark Cooper's starting eleven. Howe's former club's include MK Dons and Northampton Town.

Poppies twice come from behind to beat Hucknall Town

Kettering Town 3
Brady 32
Rawle 65
Cooke og 74

Hucknall Town 2
Graham og 22
Mayman 48

Kettering Town kick-off their home fixtures with Monday night's match against Hucknall Town hoping to continue where they left off on Saturday following their 1-0 victory over Stalybridge Celtic at Bower Fold with Mark Cooper keeping the same starting lineup and Kevin Spencer replaces Russell on the bench.

An early setback for Kettering as they fell behind to an own goal on 22 minutes with Luke Graham the unfortunate scorer, but they worked themselves quickly back into the match and recovered to pull back on level terms after 32 minutes through a superb Jon Brady free-kick to make it 1-1 going into the half-time break.

Poppies off to a winning start at Stalybridge

Stalybridge Celtic 0

Kettering Town 1
Solkhon 28

Kettering Town kicked-off their Blue Square North campaign with James McKeown in goal and Michael Malcolm and Mark Rawle getting the nod upfront.

A good first 45 minutes for Mark Cooper's players as they went into the half-time break 1-0 up courtesy of a goal from Poppies captain Brett Solkhon latching onto a cross from JP Marna after 28 minutes.

Poppies collect the silverware in final preseason fixture

Kettering Town finished their preseason buildup on a winning note, albeit hardly anything to get it excited about, the Newlands Trophy will take it's place in the Poppies trophy cabinet after a narrow 1-0 victory over Rothwell Town.

A fairly quiet match that was eventually decided by a somewhat familiar face as Patrick Peter returned to net the only goal of the game for Kettering on 85 minutes, strangely with the Poppies kicking 'up the slope' in both halves of the match. Manager Mark Cooper will be looking towards Saturday's match away to Stalybridge Celtic with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension with one or two important questions still to be resolved.

Several niggling injuries threaten to prevent the new Poppies boss from putting out what would probably be his preferred starting lineup and there is still the question of who will be Kettering's first choice keeper for the coming campaign. There are sure to be developments over the next couple of days leading up to Saturday's big kick-off as Cooper finalises his plans.

Poppies end home preseason with a narrow win

Kettering Town concluded their preseason home program with a 1-0 win over Football League Two outfit MK Dons, the only goal coming in the first-half from recent summer signing Mark Rawle. The intense heat began to sap the strength as the match wore on but there was no tiredness in the legs of Andy Hall when he setup the Poppies goal on 40 minutes.

Indecision in the visitor's defence allowed Hall the opening to nip in and win the ball and the Poppies midfielder moved forward looking for support. Mark Rawle found space and Hall passed inside for the Poppies striker to slot home the only goal of the match shortly before the half-time break.

Dons manager Paul Ince rang the changes for the second-half and was looking for an increase in productivity from his charges. Hall continued to give the visitors problems early on but Dons pushed forward to try and get an equaliser in the latter stages, only to be denied by a hard-working home defence.

Kettering Town: McKeown, Dempster (Spencer 68), Kemp, Graham, Jaszczun, Brady, Bridges, Solkhon, Hall (Westcarr 78), Rawle (Totti 71), Marna (Burton 74).
Subs not used: Russell, Bussey, Fry.

MK Dons:Gueret, Wright (Raid 66), Diallo, Murphy, Collins (Page 83), Branch (Koffi 74), Howell, Wilbraham (Kelly 46), McGovern (Hazell 46), Knight (Carayol 46), Gallen.
Subs not used: Abbey

The Poppies last preseason fixture is away to Rothwell Town on Tuesday 7th August, kick-off 7.45pm, before they travel to Stalybridge Celtic one week from today to kick-off their Blue Square North campaign in earnest.

Kettering hit six at Burton Park Wanderers

Several of the contenders for leading the Poppies attack stated their case against Burton Park Wanderers on Wednesday night as Kettering ran out 6-1 winners with manager Mark Cooper taking the field himself in the second-half.

Youth Team player Ryan Collis put Kettering in front from close-in and David Bridges increased the lead to 2-0 getting on the end of a driven ball into the box. Craig Westcarr scored the third when he punished a mistake in the Wanderers defence to latch onto a through ball and slotted it past the keeper and at half-time the Poppies lead 3-0.

After the restart a mistake by the Poppies defence allowed Luke MacIlroy to reduce the deficit for Wanderers, but the home side's joy was short-lived when Totti slid home a pass from Steve Burton after the recent signing broke clear of his marker. Totti scored his second, rounding the keeper to make it 5-1 to Kettering.

Adam Fry made it 6-1 with a well-struck effort from the edge of the penalty-area as Kettering manager Mark Cooper gave himself, Andy Hall and John Smith a run-out in the second-half of the match.

Kettering's next friendly is at home to MK Dons this Saturday 4th August 2007, kick-off 3pm.