Who's up for hating Harborough with me?

It hasn't taken long.  We've learned to despise Harborough Town quickly this season.  Case in point - the number of people on KTFC Chat who used to casually drop into the online conversation they might pop across and watch Harborough on a Saturday when we were away from home.  Those comments were often derided by the rest of us back then, but those same people wouldn't DREAM of mentioning this sort of thing now.

And why would anyone want to visit "Bowden Park" anyway?  It has to be the most perfunctory stadium ever to grace this level of football.  For all of Latimer Park's numerous drawbacks, it is roughly a thousand times better than Harborough's sterile junior-school-level facility.  We were only there a few months ago yet I can't recall a single feature of note from their stadium.

As a club they are another in the seemingly never-ending stream of outfits being promoted far beyond their natural level by mysteriously benevolent funding.  How else would they be able to afford the wages of puffy, baby-faced goal-getter Ben Stephens, or afford the constant fines of angry nutter Connor Kennedy, or indeed, afford the never-ending pork-pie bills totted up by Liam Dolman?  And Mitch Austin isn't cheap, despite all evidence to the contrary.

And what of Market Harborough itself.  Leaving aside the fact we all love their town centre and wish Kettering town centre was half as good, the place isn't worth a damn!  What with functioning infrastructure, plenty of shops, top quality butchers and fishmongers and thriving indoor market, there's almost nothing worth mentioning.  The godforsaken place even has a cinema and theatre in the town centre....I mean, what's that all about?

And what of Harborough's favourite sons and daughters?  Well, it is the birthplace of Elizabethan era witch Agnes Bowker who supposedly gave birth to a cat.  The town also produced the bass player from evil 70's revival band Showaddywaddy, notably famous for giving us all an easy Jimmy Savile impression.  And Harborough also gave us Simon Park, who's band inflicted us with the tune "Eye-level", better known as the painful ear-worm opening music to "Van der Valk".  No doubt the town has also spawned more than the national average per population of nonces and serial killers too, but, sadly, Wikipedia has come up short on the subject.

Anyway, here's to thrashing their arses on Wednesday.

Or squeaking past them with a bobbly deflected goal popping in off Jonny's knee.  I'm easy either way.

Agnes Bowker's angry looking pussy

Hear all about it!

With curious timing, another Poppies Podcast took to the airwaves (?) interweb (?) this week.  

Another one, I hear you ask.  Well, yes, there was one before, a few years ago - linked somewhere on the blog under the title "Tinhat Podcast" although now the link goes nowhere.  Ah well, another dead link on Patgod.  Periodically we have a bit of a tidy-up and knock off some of the dead links, but we've always left the original "Tinhat" link up in the vain hope that this brilliant website will one day return....

All too often Poppies fans get a bit carried away and set-up a blog / journal / podcast after a pint or two too many on a Saturday evening.  There's nothing like being slightly intoxicated to make you suddenly think that everyone MUST be interested in your unfiltered opinions. Sometimes they'll put a second article on several months later, starting with the line, "....well, it's been a while....." but invariably they've spaffed their entire Poppies-related thoughts on a single effort.

Now we have "The Poppycast" hosted via Spotify where a bunch of eager young and even younger Sheffield based Poppies fans have spent an hour talking all things end-of-season Poppies.  Well done in talking about our faltering performances for a full hour.  Roughly 58 minutes more than I could manage, that's for sure.  Fair play lads, but starting this endeavour with less than a week of the regular season to go, the timing is interesting.  

Hopefully your positivity will carry you through to another episode after next Saturday's final game of the season, and, hopefully a few more editions to come next season when we are back in your local manor in the National North.....

"Loza - top signing there by Lav."
"Yes, wise words mate!"

The last sip from the last drink in the last chance saloon

There was a lovely moment at last week's solid display and victory at Bishops Stortford when our winning, coupled with other latest scores around the division leapfrogged us back to the top of the table.  Were it not for Lowestoft's eventual capitulation to Bedford we would have entered the final bend of the season as favourites for the title.  But, unfortunately it's all "ifs" and "buts".  In the final analysis, it could be argued that we wouldn't really have deserved to come to the last three games of the season on top of the pile after our shoddy run over the past few months.

Let's be honest - assuming we don't overall Bedford, we'll always look back on this season as the "one that got away".  Unacceptable performances and defeats away to Barwell, Harborough, Redditch and Banbury in the bleak mid-winter helped chip away at the excellent league position we'd earned.  Then there was the blandest of bland 0-0 at freely-conceding Lowestoft which, possibly, hurt us even more.  These followed up with inexplicably poor efforts at home to Bromsgrove, St Ives and Hitchin well and truly ended our pre-eminence in the division.

Accepted wisdom is that Lavery lost some of the dressing room at this time.  True?  Who knows.  But we seemed to shed a few good players (and Bruno Andrade) to be replaced with a mixture of journeymen and random strikers we never actually saw.  While other teams strengthened, we weakened.  As the pitches became trickier we stopped creating chances.  I swear I could have scored as many as Jonny Edwards for all the scant chances he has had since Christmas.  And I probably would have scored the penalty at Stratford too....

It also seems to be an unspoken truth that Lavs will be heading for the exit at the end of the season.  I think this would be a mistake as he has shown a great eye for a player and coaxed some excellent performances from them over large stretches of the season which was a great relief after last season's stodgefest under Leese.  Does Lavs deserve another season?  Absolutely.  Why not?  Is there anyone better knocking around?

Another seemingly accepted rumour relates to the more hands-on ownership of George and Fabian and possibly a blurring of roles within the management hierarchy.  I have no idea if this is true, or even whether that might be a good or bad thing.  We do know that George is rightly proud of his footballing coaching and qualifications and that Fabian takes his role as footballing director seriously.  

But, is it the case that so many different footballing voices might ultimately confuse the players?  Rightly or wrongly, footballers are historically not entirely synonymous with intellectual heft, so potentially having numerous voices perhaps giving differing opinions might have been a contributory factor in our stumbling second half of the season?  Again, we'll never know for certain.

And what of a few panic signings that didn't particularly feature in Lavery's plans?  Tate Xavier Jones?  Cyrus Bubble-Gum?  What the hell were they about?  Were they players Lavery wanted or were presented with, because if he wanted them he sure didn't show it..... 

Well, before we all go back to work on Tuesday we should have a much better idea of how the season will finish, and a much better idea of where to present the plaudits in the happy event there are any to bestow.

Well, that was a waste of a snazzy graphic....

The bums the bums are squeaking

It's time to address the issue of the day.  Are we at the point when bums become squeaky? Or are we merely squeaky bum adjacent?

Bums were definitely on the edge of doing something even worse with 93 minutes on the clock against Telford. Up to then this had felt like a classic ‘day we blew the league’ much familiar in decades gone by. Salvaging something from the game felt about as likely as a clothes horse winning the Grand National. But seemingly untainted by the all round mediocrity he'd spent most of the previous 45 observing from the sidelines, Kai burst through to smash a stunning equaliser and abruptly silence the Telford end.

Can we now agree that Kai absolutely has to start every game if fit? And Nile too? Bringing Nile on as a late sub has now delivered two crucial assists in four days to keep our hopes alive, whereas Edwards has forlornly ploughed on, seemingly destined to never get a decent shot off again.

A whole blog could be devoted to the question of what has happened to Jonny and we all have our theories. To see Telford’s rampaging no.9 in action was to realise what we have been missing. If it’s just a confidence thing, we must hope that it will only take one scuffed effort that sneaks in to spark him into life. A resurgent Jonny, bullying the relatively easy pickings to follow after Stamford, could get us over the line.

With four teams almost tied on points this is effectively a mini league that will be won by whoever can avoid screwing up the most. There will be surprise defeats and contenders will take some points off each other. On paper our run in after this weekend is eminently winnable, except we have made hard work of beating middling teams. No one has a clue what will happen.     

A few weeks ago, it seemed likely that 80 points would be enough to win this league and that still seems probable. For us that means five wins, or maybe four wins and two draws. Can we afford another loss?  Seems not, but who knows in a division which is either ridiculously competitive, or lacking consistent quality, or both.

It would be ironic would it not, if after 42 games we think back to the very first, when we battered Halesowen in the second half but couldn’t quite salvage a draw.

But enough pessimism – people don’t read this blog for that kind of thing!   

Leave early?  Not a chance!

Suddenly, a 3-hour coach trip to Lowestoft is losing it's glamour

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?

Just down the A6.
You can't miss it.

Honestly, NOT a moan. Well, perhaps a bit of one....

So, what did we learn from the latest Fans Forum?  Lots of positive news about the club moving forward as a whole.  The best news being the imminent completion of a 50-year lease at Latimer Park, which kind of slid past without much further comment.  This is potentially monumental news.  With such a period of secure tender the club can truly invest in facilities such as additional terracing / seating as well as 4G training pitches and even qualify for previously unavailable grants towards such work.

George fielded the usual questions about relocating back into Kettering and straight-batted these as everyone has done for the past dozen years.  We all know there's literally no room within Kettering's current borders for a new stadium.  We might well end up 2 1/2 miles from the centre of town rather than 3 miles as present.  And pay millions for the privilege.  Frenchies Field is not the answer and I'd like someone in authority to finally nail that white elephant of an idea.

As we all know, everything in football, and life, costs money and the top table was straight with us that if we wanted better facilities, better players and better standards of football it would cost.  While we all kind of know this economic trade-off and our place within it, a few comments nagged away at me enough to mention them here.

At the risk of drawing George's ire again, he still wasn't entirely clear what the situation presently was in relation to our use of Alumasc's carpark.  Are we supposed to be paying?  Is it a voluntary contribution?  Still don't know.  What he WAS clear about was that next season we WILL be paying to use the facility, with, apparently, Alumasc's approval.  If this is the case I hope a method of paying is employed that is more efficient than a bucket collection as queues of traffic down Polwell Lane won't please the locals!

It was also stated that future Season Tickets won't be as good value as this season's one was.  I've got to say, this miffed me a bit too (perhaps I'm easily miffed?)  Poppies Season Tickets have always been notoriously shoddy value, other than the give-away season when Ladak led us a merry dance down to Nonce Park.  We have often looked at other clubs and envied their cracking offers and worthwhile "Early Bird" deals.  And then our ST offers were announced and you realised that if you were unlucky to miss a couple of games over the course of the entire season you pretty much paid more per game to attend than if you just rocked-up on the day.  And, the "benefit" of getting first dibs on tickets for BIG MATCHES was a moot point for much of the past dozen seasons!  And then there were the curtailed Covid seasons where ST holders missed out big time and had to suck it up.

This season's Season Ticket was an enjoyable "perfect storm" where the Management Team looked at what other clubs did with their "Early Bird" offers and, for the first time, made a similar offer to long-suffering Poppies fans.  Nothing special.  Just comparable to other clubs at our level.  And then we had a great cup run and, finally, a ST that counted for something!

By marking our card about new season's Season Ticket prices at this time, I was left with the feeling that the club somehow thought we had got away with something this season and not to expect such generosity again.  Perhaps I'm being too thin-skinned about this but we fans don't set the prices.  We just pay them.  Whether it is the highest admittance charge and highest beer costs in this division, we already shell out.  

Are we being told that the season ticket prices that THE CLUB SET was somehow unfair to the club?  I'd hate to believe so....

Will the 2024/2025 Season Ticket prove
to be the high watermark of Poppies value for money?

A win is a win is a win.

Why is it that after so many Poppies-watching decades we're still surprised when the last dozen games of the season suddenly appear as if out of nowhere?  And now, from out of a clear blue sky, here we are again.  Seemingly for months we've been stuck in a mid-season malaise of cancelled fixtures and grubby defeats, and now, BANG, we're staring down the barrel of rounding the final bend, hearing the bell for the 15th round within sight of the 18th hole (if you will excuse my mangled sporting metaphors).

Anyone looking at the title race from the outside would still have us pegged as slight favourites.  Obviously, having watched us change post FA Cup run from free-flowing footballing Gods into stumbling, shot-shy, defeat-fodder, we Poppies fans are unlikely to agree with this generous assessment.

But, in the final analysis, we are, despite a number of underwhelming performances in recent months, still in with as good a shot as anyone else to stumble to a title that seemingly no-one wants to clinch.  So far this season, nothing has guaranteed to bring on a run of bad form quite as certainly as going to the top of the table.

Despite jettisoning and loaning out entirely fit players only to pack our substitute bench with varying levels of crocks, we are grinding out just enough points to keep us all invested in a season that was showing every signs of developing full-blown post FA Cup blues.  Case in point?  Yesterday's win at Leiston.  The home team contrived to avoid scoring despite having the ball on our goal-line for at least 44 minutes in the first half and then missing a penalty in the second.  In between, former Poppies keeper Billy Johnson kindly gifted us our opening goal and Isiah scored his and our second goal with pretty much our only threatening attack in the second 45.

In many ways our recent performances more closely resemble our finish to last season than the majority of this.  Back when, by sheer force of will, Lavery squeezed fighting 90-minutes and important wins from a collection of previously under-performing players.  Obviously we would prefer a return to the imperious free-flowing, free-scoring fare of the pre-FA Cup run, but if by sheer gristle and throbbing, barely contained, T-shirt wearing aggression, Lavery threatens just enough out of the squad to get us over the line, I, for one, will take it.

It's been a while since we ended an article with a 
nice sunset.  This time taken from the comfort
of a happy, homeward-bound Poppies coach.