Spot the Difference

So, what has happened to turn the Poppies from last season's underachievers into this season's, well, overachievers?  Fourteen games all told this season.  Thirteen wins,  It's a record that should garner Marcus the Southern League "Manager of the Month" for August/September.  Unless, of course, the League find some way to hand it to the Hereford Manager because their crowds are so big.  Marcus is doing so well this season that his sacking is called for on KTFC Chat barely more than twice a week.  Praise indeed.

But why?  Why are we doing so much better this season?  Are Solkhon and Mulligan hitting a defensive peak, with an almost telepathic understanding?  Likewise have O'Connor and Howe actually opened a dialogue this season?  Possibly.

Surely the main reason for our resurgence this season is down to one simple fact?  This season we actually have a midfield.

Our midfield for 2015-6 was, er, OK (ish) I suppose.  Sometimes.  Carvalho had some good flashes, and a name that fitted well into a chant.  Kaid Mohammed probably always turned up for training, and looked professional on the bench.  One touch in ten from Liam Canavan was pure class.  Well, perhaps one touch in twenty.  Nathan Hicks was a solid 6 out of 10 every week.  Hornby?  Sulky, and with a fatally heavy touch on the ball, but always had clean boots.

But, compare the above with the 2016-7 vintage.  Michael Richens is a one-man footballing army.  Rhys Hoenes is a whirling dervish of attacking intent.  Ben Milnes a mixture of steel and danger.  Lindon Miekle is class in a glass.

Let's be honest, not only would none of last season's middle of the park displace any of the current shirt-holders, I'm not sure any of them would be allowed to carry their water bottles either.

Last season we let a lot of goals in due to individual errors at the back.  In fact we suffered a hideous rash of inexplicable f*ck-ups in the final third.  Some real jaw-dropping moments of awfulness.  But, the main reason the opposition managed to dip their soldiers into the runny egg of our defence so often was because they had easily strolled through our powder-puff midfield.  Not so this season.

Anyone wanting to try their luck against our mercurial Irish net-minder needs to run the gauntlet of tough Poppies defending from front-to-back.  If Rene Howe doesn't elbow you, Aaron will buzz around your ankles.  If you've still got the ball Hoenes will try to lift it off your toe, or Milnes will pick your pocket.  Failing that, Miekle will run off with ball when you think you're still kicking it.  If all else fails, Richens will kick you up in the air.

If, by some miracle, you've still not been dispossessed, Messrs Berry, Toseland, Solhkon, Mulligan and White still stand between you and trying to score your team's consolation goal.

Have we gone from decided also-rans to serious promotion contenders?  Perhaps it's still too early to say.  But, at the moment, no-one in our division will relish playing us.  And who knows, thirteen wins in the next fourteen games, perhaps a few more of our wavering fans will remember the Poppies are more than just Rockingham Road, and take a punt on the team doing so well at Latimer Park.

If you call yourself a Kettering Town fan, and can physically get yourself to the games you really have no excuse not to.

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