Pitching In

We know that the pitch at Latimer Park leaves much to be desired.  And if we somehow hadn't realised it's shortcomings, opposition managers are lining-up to point out the bleeding obvious during their pre and post match interviews.

We know that a lack of rain for 24 hours renders the surface bone-dry and bobbly.  We also know that a 5 minute shower can flood the pitch to a depth of several feet.

We know.  We know.  We know.

We also know that many clubs a lot lower in the footballing pyramid have pitches far better than ours.  Some have been prepared to host reserves or ladies teams from higher placed clubs.  Others have the latest artificial surfaces, 100% flat and bobble-free.  We've all seen footage of one-man-and-his-dog outfits with state of the art 4G pitches and wondered how on earth they could afford such an outlay.

Why them and not us?

My knowledge of pitch maintenance and costs is as lacking as the next terrace expert.  But could our pitch not be dug down a couple of feet, filled with "good soil" rolled flat and hey presto!  A perfect surface.  Or be dug-up and replaced with a spanking new 4G?

Sure, the cost would be enormous, but that's what we have Owners, Chairman and Board members for.  Right?

But exactly how desperate are we punters to have the pitch sorted once and for all?  What if Ritchie offered to shell out for the Latimer Park's surface to be made the envy of non-league.  No expense spared.  A billiard table in Burton.  The only catch would be that, given the outlay, we would be making Latimer Park our permanent home.  

Flog the pointless, unreachable Frenchies Field back to the Council.  Stop pretending once and for all that this impossible "return to Kettering" would happen.  Not that this distant field is especially more "Kettering" than Latimer Park.  Both sites are just over 3 miles from Kettering town centre.  One has a football ground on it.  The other has fox sh*t on it.

Do we commit ourselves to the home we have now?  Or keep imagining Frenchies Field might happen?  Which way do we jump?  

Do we really expect Ritchie's bottomless wallet to furnish us with a Wembley level playing facility at Latimer Park while also magically creating Rockingham Road MK 2 in a field with zero access which is only just borderline part of Kettering?

We're not privy to Ritchie's thinking.  We have no idea if he is as concerned with the "Burton-bobble" as opposition managers and the rest of us seem to be.  But what would we say were Ritchie to make us the hypothetical choice outlined above...?  It would be an interesting conversation to be sure!

A curious little one

Who'd have thought it.  As of Easter Sunday our second highest home and away League gates have both been against Gloucester City.  Fancy that.

Not much of a stat, but definitely an, "Ooh, er" moment....

Another week, another double!

Always the last to know...!

It would appear that Kettering Town FC is a 2-BLOG club!  I'm not quite sure how it has taken me so long to notice that there was a second Poppies blog floating out there in the firmament.  Probably because I wasn't open to the possibility that someone else would bother wasting their valuable time typing piffle about the Poppies. 

You can link to "Up the Poppies" here

The only downside I can see is that "Patgod2" has been a little quiet these past 12-months even though they still seem active on other social media platforms.  This highlights the shame about not having another viable Poppies blog-fanzine - we at Patgod don't get to read a Poppies blog!

Anyway, a link has been added to the "People who write about the Poppies" section of PATGOD so you can take a look.  There are numerous links here worth a look.  Or, they would be if they were all still in existence.  And in the case of "Tinhat's Unofficial Site" this is a tragedy as that website was a brilliantly comprehensive Poppies-centric website.  Run from the States there were many times in our recent history when it was far better and more up to date than the club's official website.  

Some websites have entirely bitten the dust.  Including the Travel Club site, now missed if only for the collection of images of Eli holding his false teeth.  Some, regrettably, seem to have simply ceased trading - such as the The Tin Hat Podcast and Poppies Real Ale Tasting Society.  Who knows, perhaps they will start up again?  Just as soon as a love for nattering about the Poppies or drinking beer can be rekindled in our collective bosom....

In the meantime we'll plough on.  Partly to keep the Poppies fanzine flag flying, but probably more because we really don't have anything more worthwhile to do.

Entirely random Poppies image
from the archives to mark our finally
not being the current Champions of the
Southern League Midland Division.

Meanwhile, over the Lincolnshire border.....

Sign 'em up!

The club has so many Smiths (loans allowing) and Connors (suspensions allowing) that I have oft pondered during quiet passages of play - most recently during the first half against Chorleyzzzzz if there was an actual Connor Smith out there we could sign to get the best of all worlds.  If for no other reason than to give me a private chuckle.

Well, bugger me if a few minutes alone with Wikipedia hasn't thrown up just one Connor Smith but fully THREE Connor Smiths currently plying their footballing trade in the UK!  I can't believe, given our fixations with both Connors and Smiths we haven't given at least one of them a contact!

C'mon Ritchie, get one of them in!  Hell, why not all three!

Connor Smith 1

Connor Smith 2

Connor Smith 3

Failing that, there is a County music star who could also fill the role.....Yee Haw!

Dose of Reality

This afternoon we'll be entertaining Chorley and still, theoretically, be chasing the final Play-Off place.  This final Play-Off place suddenly drifted into our firmament a month ago when a good run of results punted us into nose-bleed territory.  A run of away defeats since then has blunted these ambitions somewhat.  Whether we reach the Play-Offs or not I truly hope this isn't the measure by which the 2021-2022 season is judged.  

To my mind, were we to even finish mid-table the season can only be considered a success.  The fact that the Play-Offs are even being mentioned in March is frankly incredible.  

We have a playing surface that must surely repel any footballer worth their salt.  Our stadium, even with the vast amount of welcome work done, is still the worst at this level.

But the biggest drag-factor, holding us back, and what will continue to hold us back is the utter apathy of the people of Kettering.  As much as we like to believe we're still a big club we are two thirds of the way down the attendance chart in National North.  Other towns back their clubs.  Take Spennymoor, they get TWICE our gates while their population is less than a third of Kettering.  Today's opponents Chorley average well over 1200 despite a population of less than half that of Kettering.

We happily mock Brackley's small gates, but they average barely less than a hundred than we do squeezed from a tiny population of 13,000 - a town slightly larger than Desborough.

Unfortunately, until we start attracting regular four figure gates we will always be punching above our weight simply by playing at this level.  And that is unlikely to happen while people who profess to support the Poppies are content to not watch them play.  Even though we have now not played at Rockingham Road for over a decade there are too many people who haven't moved on or are simply waiting for a new "Rockingham Road" to suddenly appear at the end of their street before they can be arsed to actually watch the club they profess to support.

There is literally no way we are ready to compete in the Play-Offs with a small squad being watched by a small support at a small ground.  Imagine if we somehow stumbled to promotion!!!  Jeez.  We would be murdered by the teams in the National League.  There are some seriously monster-sized teams roaming at that level.  We are doing well to be competitive at National North.  Going forward?  The people of Kettering need to decide with their feet what kind of club they want to pretend to support in the future.

It's a tragedy we lost Rockingham Road and we'll never forgive
those who cost us our spiritual home.  But it's gone and there's not
a damn thing we can do about it.  Some still need to realise this.

As if we couldn't hate Stevenage more.....

 Crook gets another chance to fail

Paul Raynor joins long-time managerial partner

Steve Evans in the Stevenage technical area