Marna hat-trick sees Poppies 5-2 winners at home to Hinckley Utd

Kettering Town 5
Marna pen 15, 29, 81
Beardsley 39
Solkhon 73

Hinckley Utd 2
Murphy 44, 61

Kettering Town resume their BSN campaign this Saturday at home to near-neighbours Hinckley Utd, with their lead at the top having been cut to 5pts by second-placed AFC Telford Utd. Poppies boss Cooper appears to be rotating his squad, having made several changes to Tuesday's starting lineup. In comes, (new signing) Branston, Hall and Marna, with Mills and Brady on the bench alongside Westcarr.

Both teams settling early into the match and starting to probe their opponents defences from the kick-off. Marna looks very lively as Poppies almost take the lead with a header from Luke Graham from a corner. On 15 minutes however, Kettering did take the lead, Beardsley is brought down in the box and Jean-Paul Marna scores from the spot to make it 1-0.

The visitors weather a spell of pressure from Kettering and begin to recover their composure after the early setback of conceding a penalty. The home side continue to press forward and following a series of corners, Jean-Paul Marna nips in front of keeper Bowles to head Kettering 2-0 up on 29 minutes.

Plenty of activity leading up to half-time as Marna turns provider and his cross sets up Chris Beardsley who heads Kettering 3-0 up on 39 minutes. With seconds to go before the break, The Knitters pull one back as Gez Murphy lobs over Keeper Harper to make it 3-1 on 44 minutes.

Half-time: Kettering Town 3 Hinckley Utd 1

Kettering slow to come out the blocks at the start of the second 45 minutes and Hinckley punish them with another goal from Gez Murphy to reduce the deficit as they now trail 3-2 with 6 minutes gone in the second-half.

The home side stung into action after conceding a second and almost hit back but first Beardsley and then Bridges are denied. With 20 minutes in the second period gone, the Knitters have already made their three substitutions, off went Hoyte, Jackson and Richards and on came Edwards, Richards and Quailey. Cooper swaps out Galbraith to bring on Brady for Kettering and then replaces Bridges with Mills for the remaining 20 minutes of a very close match.

Beardsley almost scores but is denied, however, from the resulting corner, Dempster header plays in Brett Solkhon who restores the home side's two-goal cushion to make it 4-2 with 17 minutes remaining. John Dempster goes into the referee's notebook as Quailey fires high for the Knitters. With the match entering the final ten minutes, Jean-Paul Marna looks to have made the game safe and scores his hat-trick to make it 5-2 to Kettering.

Kettering play out the remaining minutes to record another excellent win and with news filtering in that both AFC Telford Utd and Southport have lost, the Poppies once again go 8pts clear at the top.

Att: 1,446

Kettering: Harper, Jaszczun, Galbraith, Graham, Dempster, Branston, Solkhon, Hall, Bridges, Beardsley, Marna. Subs: Brady, Westcarr, Kemp, Mills, Bussey.

Hinckley: Bowles, Hoyte, McKay, Roma, Platnauer, O'loughlin, Byron, K.Storer, Jackson, Lloyd, Murphy. Subs: S.Storer, Belford, Quailey, Richards, Edwards.