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.
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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. |
