The club can confirm the departure of attacking midfielder Isiah Noel-Williams with immediate effect. Isiah made 35 appearances for the Poppies scoring 11 goals, most notably against Farsley Celtic and Doncaster Rovers in the Emirates FA Cup and 3 goals in his last 4 games for the club. Despite on-going contract negotiations before Christmas, the player has decided to leave to pursue other opportunities. The club thank Isiah for his contribution to Kettering Town FC.
And with that blandest of bland statements one of the best players to pull on a Poppies top in recent years simply drifts out of Latimer Park. A few weeks ago a midfield that could call upon a number of quality line-ups including the likes of Gary Stohrer, Dan Jarvis, Isiah Noel-Williams, Devon Kelly-Evans, Andy Thanoj, Kai Fifield, Luca Miller, Tyree Wilson and Wes York has been, by departures, injuries and mind-boggling loanings been much reduced. Hopefully Andy, Tyree, Wes and the two new anonymous midfielders who have barely registered in my consciousness are able to turn our season around again but they are showing no signs of it.
Our FA Cup run truly seems to be the dividing point in our season. Now, I wouldn't swop that afternoon at Sixfields for ANYTHING, but, it has to be said, that the end of our FA Cup story has seen us fall apart.
Since losing to Doncaster we've managed to win just 7 of our 17 league fixtures, losing a further 7. And of those wins there were barely deserved wins against Sudbury and Leiston, who both must still be scratching their heads at how we escaped from Suffolk laden with maximum points. Plus squeaky bums wins over Alvechurch and Bishops Stortford.
Compare that to where we had, up to and including the Cobblers game, won 9 league games and 4 FA Cup games in a row. And not just won them. We had wiped the floor with most of our opponents. We had been nothing short of imperious. Other teams couldn't live with us. The win at Telford in particular was so intoxicating that it had me giddily reaching for the phone to text the missus that, "....I think I might just have seen the Champions tonight...." Ahem....
So, what happened to turn us from a team strolling to a title win to a team struggling to register attempts on goal, while seemingly conceding goals every time the ball is thrown into our penalty area? Post TV coverage blues? Perhaps. Pitches getting heavier. No doubt a factor.
But it's been clear from what we have all seen and heard that the main problem has been players letting their standards drop and a Manager unable to coax them back to previous levels without personally falling out with them. Suddenly a happy, large squad is reduced to a small, struggling rump of players where we can't put a run of wins together, niggly injuries and bans are shagging us and we've even managed to neuter the guaranteed goal-scoring beast that is Johnny Edwards.
Ironically, if we win all our remaining 9 games no-one can catch us. We win the League. But no-one is seriously considering this even for a minute. Instead we are starting to worry about staying in the play-offs. The win over the Cobblers seems to have been the turning point of our season. Curiously, since that defeat the Cobblers have been making a decent fist of survival in League One. Odd that they might end this season happier than us. Who would have thought that as we filed, beaming with joy, out of Sixfields just a few months ago?
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