Another week. Another reset.

Hopefully anyone unfortunate enough to have followed the Poppies down to St Ives on Boxing Day will have shook off the after-effects of that pathetic performance by now.  Or drowned it in booze and chocolate.  It was one of the few times I have ever watched the Poppies where I could point at the players and definitely say that they had given up.  Not one of them could leave that pitch with even a smidgen of self-respect and say they had earned their money.  Were the Poppies not existing on a hand-to-mouth basis it was the sort of game where supporters would be offered refunds of their admittance fee from club coffers.

Sharpe was singled out for his utterly abject performance, where every touch he had either led to a St Ives goal or, at best, a near miss.  And then he followed this up by being pulled-up by the referee for a foul throw.  Cue much gallows humour at the thought of what he was now good for if not to take throw-ins....?  He still had the fight in him to argue with some fans when he had finally, mercifully been substituted, but that passion came too late to be of any practical use.  But, Rhys wasn't alone.  We had a couple of new players flitting around the edge of the game to absolutely no effect as the St. Ives players played straight through them.  The midfield of Dawson, White (!), Scott and Jarvis contributed NOTHING in an attacking or defensive sense for the full 95 minutes we had to endure.  Probably they did nothing of note during the warm up too, which I missed, being in a lovely pub that to my dying day I wished I'd never left.  Bennett was in his oh-so-useful full "arms thrown up in the air mode" and the defence managed to easily ship 6 goals, and the fact it wasn't well into double figures represented the full extent of our good fortune.

Look back over the 15 years this blog has been running and you will struggle to find another article when we have named and shamed players. Partly because it does no-one any good and partly because players generally give it their best, no matter how moderate their best is.  Not so on Boxing Day.  St Ives looked like a Championship team tearing a bunch of amateurs to shreds, threatening to score with every attack, while their goalkeeper continued to stretch, jog and chat to bemused Poppies fans to remain active.  There is no way on earth a neutral who had the good fortune to pick this game would have believed these two teams were a single place apart in the league table.   Or in the same league come to that.  Having watched St Ives three times this season I've no idea why they aren't challenging for the play-offs.  Perhaps it's just us they turn it on against.  Does Michael Richens hate us THAT much?

New Year's Day fixture against Stratford now assumes enormous importance.  It may tell us whether St Ives was a blip and, he types in frantic optimism, the final flushing out of Andy Leese's influence, or whether these players simply don't have the balls or ability for this level of football. Without Stohrer and Lewthwaite for God-knows how long, one wonders where the heart and goals will come from to prevent us remaining in the bottom four until the end of the season.

Yet another home defeat and it will be difficult to see how we come back as a team or support.  The team's limitations are there for all to see.  But the supporters have been nothing short of magnificent this season.  We have put up with almost nothing but dross and continued to turn up in far better number than the performances have warranted.  But, the tipping point when we wonder why we are bothering when the team isn't is not just approaching.  It's here.  Stratford is likely to be the breaking point.  Not just for occasional fans either.  Hardcore supporters are starting to fear the worst and are also voting with their feet. In the past Patgod would have attempted to take a contrary stance but, presently, it's difficult to find a compelling argument when a fellow supporter considers non-attendance.  

This is the point in the article where we usually throw in a positive couple of lines so you go away with a slight lift in your step, but we have nothing for you this time.  What can we say?  That our players will grow a f**king backbone or feel a sense of shame at the living they are stealing at the moment?  What's the point?  They'll either step up to the plate or they'll continue to serve up the current sh*t until we're back playing the likes of North Greenford and Chalfont St Peters again.  There's bugger all we can do about it other than watch and hope.

Still, here's another nice sunset photograph from the Halesowen game, the last time the team flattered to deceive.

Portaloo Sunset

Continuing our occasional series of great backdrops to step 6 or 7 football, here's the celestial scene as we held a 1-0 lead at Halesowen. What pinks!  Or are they coral?  Not a debate you will ever hear at the Etihad or Emirates - their loss. 

Golden Goal Glory!

 

Hand it over!

Fancy a lengthy Poppies career?

 If so, don't strike this pose!

Intelligent Life Discovered at Latimer Park

Did anyone else catch Will Mellors-Blair on Radio Northampton's Non League show this week?  If not, click the link below.  It really is worth a listen.

Mellors-Blair Interview

Will comes across incredibly well and succinctly puts his finger on the difference in philosophies of our previous and current Managers.  Without ever bad-mouthing Leese overtly it was pretty clear the players felt constrained and unhappy under him.  

More interestingly, Will then goes on to talk about his vast number of professional qualifications and work helping other footballers with their mental issues after having suffered previously himself.  It was a timely reminder that those young people on the pitch running around for our entertainment are all normal, flawed human beings and not simply one-dimensional puppets defined only by which colour shirt they wear and whether they can trap a ball.

It shouldn't need repeating, but probably does, that everyone on the pitch huffing and puffing for our gratification is doing something they love for the watching, paying public.  Whether this is a goalie who drops a ball, a striker who blazes over or a linesman who may have missed an offside.  All human.  All flesh and blood people.  All of them feel and think and react the same way as the rest of us to praise or criticism.  Perhaps something to consider before we next bellow our outrage at someone barely in their 20's for failing once to do something we lardy f*ckers could never do while we have holes in our arses.

And Will is as human as they come.  He has experienced a lot in a short life.  He speaks with a great deal of sense and obvious intelligence.

And yet....and then.....

Will goes and spoils everything by claiming that we are the best team in the division and should be looking at the play-offs as a minimum.  Mmmm.... It's difficult to know whether we need to reassess everything else he has said in light of these patently wishful-thinking statements!

However, we will be happy for Will to point back at this article come April when our second-half of the season surge up the table propels us into the end of season shoot out. 

Makes Sense I Suppose

I guess we now know why Leon Clarke put in a bit of surprising effort when we played Mickleover recently.  There's nothing like a job interview for making someone who hadn't so much as shed a single drop of sweat in several games start chasing around the park as if he actually wanted to earn his wages for a change.

Let's hope Mickleover get better value for money than we did out of this lazy has-been.  God knows how they can afford him on their threadbare gates, but who knows, maybe another club are lining up a bid for him as we speak to pay him even more.  As long as he doesn't have to rely on goal bonuses....

It was good to see Leese's glamour signing manage to watch his new team lose again on his debut, this time in their kit rather than ours.  

Leon Clarke - End of an Era

Leon Clarke's sudden departure has come at a most inopportune time.  There was every indication that at some time in the next 2 or 3 months he was likely to notch an actual goal for the Poppies.  Those first 4-5 games where he didn't have a single effort of note seem a distant memory.  Great days where he barely moved above walking pace, and generously never caused defenders any problems whatsoever.  For the next few games Leon crept closer and closer to, if not actually scoring a goal, at least making the goalkeeper aware he was on the pitch.  The locals at Berkhamsted and Leiston will talk in whispered, reverential tones for many years to come of the day THE Leon Clarke played at their stadiums and almost had an effort on target.

And then.  It happened.  Mark the date - Tuesday 21st November 2023.  Leon lumbered into the air like a disinterested salmon and headed the ball towards the Mickleover goal.  An actual attempt on goal where, if the keeper had not made a regulation save, it would have been an honest-to-goodness goal.  We were THAT CLOSE to seeing an actual, live Leon Clarke goal.  For the Poppies.  In the flesh.

In the end it wasn't to be.  Leon has left us, heading to his 300th club and they will be the next team willing to take on the eternal quest of trying to tease a goal from him before he gets his bus pass.  We wish them all the best.

As interested as Leon 
ever looked in a Poppies shirt.

Don't Panic Chaps!

It's all change as club stalwart Paul Cooke steps down and retires from his numerous roles at Latimer Park.  This means some other mug will have to become club statistician, assemble too good a matchday programme for our level and bully the boss into admitting where it all went wrong in post match interviews.

Needed - a new Cooke

But, for the love of God DON'T PANIC!  Don't listen to the doom-mongers.  Ignore the naysayers.  We can 100% confirm that Patgod IS NOT GOING TO RETIRE.  Honestly, we're in it for the long haul and won't let you down.  No more than we do presently anyway.

When you need poorly punctuated sarcasm, unresearched statistics and baldy spelt cynicism masquerading as wit, we will be there for you.  Chairmen leave.  Players flit in and out.  Managers get the chop.  Club worthies quit to join us proles on the terraces.  But Patgod will endure.  You have our promise and our commiserations.

Poppies Re-Leese-d

We all know one swallow doesn't make a Summer.  Equally we know that one good performance doesn't mean we are out of the relegation woods.  But, bloody hell, how refreshing was last night's effort against Mickelover?  Players that previously shrugged their way through sleepwalking defeats to all and sundry suddenly looked hungry, determined, communicative and active.  It shows how anaesthetised the players and supporters had been by Leese with his dismal outlook and tactics that simply putting in a 100% performance was so bloody entertaining.  Just seeing us looking to go toe-to-toe with another team rather than stand off them and watch them carve us like a Sunday roast, brought tears to eyes, smiles to faces and swelling in loins all around Latimer Park.

Langmead was solid.  Toseland expansive.  Sharpe dangerous.  Scott useful.  Miller excellent.  Even Clarke was spotted sprinting on at least two occasions.

As for the players, we'll tell you what.  Why don't we draw a line under the season so far?  We won't bang on about the lack of endeavour, the poor results and poorer performances.  Let's say the season started yesterday and we'll put Leese's wretched tenure firmly behind us.

How does that sound?  OK?  See you at Alvechurch.

Turning the corner at last?

Bye Bye Andy Part 1: Barely Managing

It took a final humbling capitulation away to Coalville for the club to bring down the curtain on Andy's unhappy reign at Kettering.  In truth he couldn't have argued had the club chosen to terminate his contract earlier.  Chastening defeats interspersed with the odd flukey win had not won Andy to the hearts of the supporters.  Throw in his post match analysis which rarely deviated from, "it is all the fault of the players for not listening to me", and we have ended up where we are.  Over a third of the way through the season, looking over our shoulders at relegation and seeking a new manager.

And yet, his appointment back in the Summer was greeted with universal acclaim.  Finally, a Manager with experience, longevity and suspiciously dark hair for a man older than even the writers of Patgod.  He was personable and said all the things we'd been wanting to hear.  The only, even slight issue was that the majority of his managerial experience came in more southerly leagues.  But a good Manager is a good Manager.  Most of us weren't even bothered when the, "we're a few weeks behind in pre-season" line was trotted out again.  We had our man and our man was Andy.

By the end of September Andy's reputation was in tatters.  I heard fellow supporters who had stoically accepted a lot of ropey football over the years calling, vociferously for the gaffer's unusually brown-haired head.  Our record over August and September makes harrowing reading and made even more harrowing watching.  We won just one of our first 10 league games.  And some of those defeats were substantial.  Not always in the score.  Yes, sometimes in the score, but more to do with the gulf between us and often quite moderate opposition.  In the first three games both Stourbridge and Barwell completely and utterly played us off the park.  They were both in entirely different gears to our lumbering team.  Had both won by several more goals we couldn't have argued.  Hitchin's 4-0 win at Latimer Park, equally could easily have been by a larger margin.  

"But, what of our FA Cup run" fans of Andy would argue if he had any.  It does seem, looking back, that any luck Leese enjoyed came in this competition.  Completely uninspiring wins against Hullbridge, Sporting Khalsa, and a Rourke's Drift win at Hitchin got us far enough to be easily rolled over by a Chesterfield team rarely out of first gear.  It really didn't matter if the opposition came from two divisions above or below - we sportingly strove to make them look better than us.

Belatedly, Andy started picking up a few league wins.  But, incredibly lucky triumphs over Berkhamstead and Royston where our opponents are probably still shaking their heads over their defeats, did not even come close to papering over the cracks.  It was soon business as usual as we slithered to further Leese-shoulder-shrugging defeats against Leamington and Coalville.

If nothing else, we've had a salutary lesson this season that there are truly no guarantees in football.  An established manager.  A reasonable budget.  An incredible amount of supporter goodwill.  Even the Latimer Park surface is behaving well.  And still, we are struggling like f*ck not to be relegation fodder.  

The club simply HAD to act now to give any replacement a fair chance of pulling us out of our current nose-drive.  Disappointingly, it was clear Andy wasn't going to accept his limitations and volunteer to step down.  He would have ground this season down to dust and considered it a job well done had we finished fifth from bottom playing in front of 200 bored supporters.  Sorry Andy - not good enough.

Bye Bye Andy Part 2: Barely Playing

Andy Leese has been removed from his job for not being able to do it very well.  But, as we know, Managers can only do so much.  Once the players cross the white line there's little Managers can do.  That goes doubly so for Leese.

The players this season have been very poor.  No if's or but's.  We've been rubbish at the back, rubbish in midfield and, yes, rubbish at front.  They have not played two good halves of football back-to-back.  There has been no leadership, little communication and scant effort.  The players all look half as fit as the players we have played against.  Personally, and more disappointingly, I don't think I'd be bothered if ANY of them left, and I cannot recall ever thinking that in previous seasons, no matter how dire things got.

I can't believe any of our players could put their hands on hearts and say they've given their all this season.  They have looked unfit, under-prepared and often, unforgivably, uninterested.

This is all the more annoying as a lot of them are easily good enough for this level.  They are not world-beaters, but they should at least be Barwell-beaters.  Most of them will still be here under the next manager so we can only hope the new man (or woman...!) can wring the missing 20% out of each of them that a good manager, or even professional pride should bring forward.

You've let us and yourselves down so far this season.  But, unlike Leese, you have the chance to redeem yourself.  If you do - great.  If you think you've done your absolute best so far this season I'd strongly suggest you follow your ex-gaffer out of the door because you haven't.

Bye, Bye Andy Part 3: Barely Supporting

The sacking of a Manager is often a good point to take stock.  The people who run the club have a chance to perform a reset.  The players have slates rubbed clean ahead of the new Manager letting them go in favour of their personal favourites.  But what of the rest of us?  The unwashed masses who have no choice but to be here because for good or ill, Kettering Town FC is our club.

Waiting to hear about a new appointment is, let's admit it, usually an exciting time.  Listening as some outlandish names are bandied about by "people in the know".  I think my personal favourites were when Sean Dyche and Peter Beardsley were mentioned as being literally on Kettering railway platform before being snatched away.  Or that time Gazza was supposedly drinking the Beeswing dry ahead of becoming our Manager.  As if!

Invariably the glamourous names fall away and a jobbing technocrat is unveiled to the unenthusiastic hoards.  Some do well, some badly.  Some get far more abuse from the supporters than others.  Some deservedly, others not.  But some of our supporters seem to exist to abuse club officials and even fellow supporters.  Not in person. Obviously.  Not even always at games,where their attendance can be intermittent at best.  No, they start sh*t-storms on social media, no matter who or what it costs the club.  Nothing is as important as their right to destructively complain.

The annoying thing is our toxic element is such a small part of our supporter base.  When you look at all the incredible work and effort being put in by fellow fans at the club and for our benefit and to help keep the Poppies afloat you could almost weep at the damaging vitriol spewed onto Facebook by some of our number.  

But it's worth remembering and repeating that for every "fan" out there who isn't happy until he forces a player, manager, official, chairman to quit the club we have dozens and dozens cleaning the stadium, selling (admittedly bent) klondike tickets, serving food and beer, organising coaches for away games, hosting in the hospitality lounge, putting on events and many, many more activities that keep the club going.  We don't always notice and certainly don't always appreciate the enormous amount of effort so many people put in for their love of their Poppies.  Sometimes all it seems that we do is complain about shelling out 15 quid to get into Latimer Park.

During this period of reflection that the manager and players have let us down perhaps we supporters should look to ourselves to see if we too can do better.  Not attending a game hurts, really hurts us as a club.  Missing a game at Latimer Park in favour of attending an away game may make us look good on the road, but does nothing for the club's coffers.  I'd love to know how many of the younger guys who loudly proclaimed at Chesterfield that they were "Kettering till they die" regularly rock up at Latimer Park?  We'd started the season with a few big gates which, perhaps understandably have tailed off given the fare we've been served, but you have only to look at what is happening at Nuneaton Borough to understand the phrase, "Use it or lose it".  

We can't always assume someone else will pick-up the slack.  Sometimes it's down to all of us to do our bit.  We're all guilty of sometimes falling out of love with the Poppies, but in the final analysis we are so intwined with our club that to hurt it is to hurt ourselves.  As we ask our Management and players to do better perhaps we too can improve.

"Pork Scratchings and a nice chianti......"

 

Who knew the club would throw-up

a "Silence of the Lambs" remake

we didn't know we wanted!

Oh My God! You Can Get Sacked For THAT?

Joey Barton sums Steve Evans up pretty well...

Steve Evans lets rip at the officials as their car
pulls into the carpark two hours before kick off

This brightly coloured little fellah
ain't gonna fall over any time soon

Northamptonshire's finest

 

If you judge a man by the company he keeps...

Peter: I deny all accusations

Philip: Who put me next to him?

Farage: Watch it matey, I'll be your leader after the next election

The End of the Phoney War

Well, the Chesterfield FA Cup tie went about as well as expected.  Chesterfield utterly dominated.  We (mostly) defended well and had the occasional foray forward.  At no point in the game was the result in any doubt whatsoever.  We saw Burberry-clad "Poppies supporters" who we'll never see at Latimer Park, professing in song and beer their eternal love for the Kettering Town FC pre-match and then strutted out of the ground with 20 minutes remaining.  See you next time we have a big away game lads....

So, the FA Trophy and FA Cup have safely and firmly been put to bed, what next?

Long-suffering Latimer Park patrons have a league fixture against rampant Mickleover who already have as many wins this season as we have achieved in the past TWO seasons.  This game is followed by two away games against fellow strugglers Leiston and Berkhamsted.  The Phoney War is over.  The Real War is here.

Patgod has been unusually harsh in it's treatment of Leese.  This doesn't sit well with us.  We don't enjoy slagging off club managers.  He seems an OK bloke and we're certain he is doing his best, but the the facts are the facts.  Ten League games played.  One victory.  Plenty of footballing lessons handed out to our flagging, ever-changing squad.

Surely, anything less than at least a couple of victories from the next three matches will confirm the relegation battle most of us believe we are already in.  The Club officials will then need to REALLY consider the managerial position.  Do we double-down on a manager who has put us in this frankly embarrassing position?  Or do we go for broke and imagine the unimaginable with the possible return of someone we'd told ourselves we would never have back here, but might just be what we need to turn our faltering squad into a slightly more successful faltering squad?

Andy Lose Leeses It Again.....

If anyone can recall less impressive first 45 minutes from a Poppies team in living memory than the opening half today at St Ives, I'd like to see it.  Well, obviously I wouldn't like to see it.  As it would be unremittingly awful, but you know what I mean.  In 45 dismal minutes my team contributed NOTHING to a game of football against a team so poor that they are below even us in the league standings.  Not that you would have guessed it.  You'd have been more inclined to believe they were a Football League team the way they picked us apart time and time again so easily.  

Barely 90 minutes since the humbling at home by Hitchin after which Leese promised we would never again be so abject, we were far worse over the opening period at St Ives in our meek FA Trophy surrender.

When the players slunk off at halftime to what, by rights, should have been a full-Fergie hairdryer, every Poppies fan at the ground had the same worrying thought -

How many goals will Chesterfield stick past us next week?  My guess, if we played anything like this, was about 30.

This doesn't bode well for the gaffer.  Let's be honest, the FA Cup run must be the only thing keeping him in a job.  Our League performances certainly aren't.

But let's be even more honest.  We have hardly been worth any of the FA Cup wins either.  If any of the opponents we've overcome had beaten us we would have had no cause for complaint.  Starting at Hullbridge where a missed penalty and numerous missed opportunities scuppered our lowly host's chances.  Sporting Khalsa's wastefulness in front of goal in a second half where the game was 90% played in our penalty area.  Hitchin missing chance after chance last week.  I can't recall us having more than 3 attempts on goal over all three matches.  Luckily for us, they all went in.

This time next week our luck will have more than likely have run out.  We will have the League to concentrate on (staying in).  Leese has managed 10 games where we have won only 1.  And our next game is up against Mickleover who have won 10 out of 10 and are, no doubt, salivating at the prospect of taking to the pitch against us.  

In the final analysis, regardless of Andy's relevant success in the past, his Poppies teams have been thoroughly underwhelming this season.  What's worse is that there are literally no signs of an improvement happening.  It is utterly tragic at a time when so many people are doing so much behind the scenes at the club and so many events, activities and other off-field works are going on, the on-field element is such utter garbage.  

It's nothing short of a miracle our gates have held up as well as they have.  It won't last if decided action isn't taken soon.  What if Andy's given another 10 games to magically get the players to want to play for him, or to develop a smidgen of tactical nous?  Suddenly we would be looking ahead to half a season having slipped away before we accept what everyone can see right now.  Leese isn't up to the job and we have only half a season to save ourselves from a second successive relegation.

Insert "Last Chance" punning title here

I was casting around for a catchy title for a quick article suggesting that given the ploddingly awful start to the season he has presided over, that Andy Leese might be in danger of using his last chance up later today at Hitchin.  Just to make sure I didn't accidentally re-use an old article title I typed "last chance" in the "Blog Search" function.  Quite a depressingly large number of articles spooled out from this operation.  Some blasting the last chance to buy chips at the game and some dreading the very real possibility of us having played our last game.  The Blog algorithm did not distinguish between the two extremes or care a jot.  It just blandly listed dozens and dozens of articles where we bemoaned the end of something to do with the Poppies. Christ, we love a good wallow don't we?

A similarly gutless defeat today to Hitchin to the one they inflicted upon us midweek and it would be difficult to see how Leese could survive.  All season we have looked less fit, less incisive, less skilful, and less interested than the teams lined up against us.  And that includes Hullbridge in the Cup where, 8 times out of 10 with the respective performances of the two teams, they would have won comfortably.

Our lack of fight this season is the biggest difference between last season and this.  For all of Lee

Andy ponders who 
to blame this week

Glover's managerial limitations you rarely felt his teams hadn't given their all.  This season you seriously wonder what passes for player training.  There's little evidence that defending, attacking or fitness feature highly on the list of activities on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

We can see we have some reasonably good players.  But it's hard to point at any that are performing at more than 75% of their ability or capacity.  Personal pride should drag more out of them.  Being properly coached and managed should bring the rest out.  It's currently looking like both are sadly lacking.

At the moment the Club are backing Leese with ongoing player acquisitions - the latest being the questionable resurrection of Leon Clarke who hasn't played this season for anyone.  It means he's available for the FA Cup, but doesn't speak well to his fitness.  Surely a desperate, last-gasp gambit for the Management?  But, what if this doesn't work either?  How much time do you invest in a situation that shows no real sign of improving?  

More to the point, does the club's newly-formed Management Committee structure actually have a facility for hiring and firing?  Right now are they scratching their heads over how to go about this most painful of footballing duties?  And what of Leese's 2-year contract?  What kind of hefty pay-out might that entail.  A performance or result this afternoon anything like our last encounter against Hitchin and we must surely find out.

Long Eaton - Away

So what we did learn from our trip to Long Eaton?  Two things at least.

One, we are in a relegation battle unless something radical happens. If you were looking for evidence that the team had turned a corner, not sure that it was evident in scraping a point in the 97^th minute against a side that had lost every home game this far.

Two, and possibly related, Andy Leese clearly believes that the best way to motivate his team and maximise our chances of doing well is to:

• Stand in his technical area with arms folded
• Turn and bitch to his assistants whenever an attack breaks down or the opposition threaten
• Occasionally throw his arms in the air in disgust, and
• Offer no encouragement, advice or anything that remotely resembles coaching to the players on the pitch

You have to admit, it’s a method that the very top coaches could learn from.

Is it any wonder that we seem to get worse as games go on, often after a bright start. Any of our players looking over to the bench for guidance, moral support or positivity will instead see the footballing equivalent of a bulldog chewing a wasp.

Plus they know that after the game he will throw them under the bus if necessary, to justify another bad result where "they didn't follow my instructions".  What instructions? 

Andy Leese might have interviewed very well with a decent CV, but he’s a busted flush and this club is going nowhere under him except very possibly down again.

Well Did You Evah?

Dare we start to hope that after one of the least inspiring openings to a season that Leese is wresting control of the tiller of the good ship KTFC?  We are, at time of writing, enjoying a five match unbeaten run.  True, two of the games were against lower league opposition where we were second best for most of both games, and one involved a 145th minutes equaliser.  It's also true we've not truly looked convincing for 2 x 45 minute periods in a row.

But an unbeaten run is an unbeaten run.  

Perhaps one day we'll actually conduct our pre-season business during pre-season and actually have our preferred team assembled on day one of the season rather than by the start of October.  Mad I know, but might be worth a go?

Curiously, the only team we have effectively bossed this season, and some might say, "owned" is Tottenham Hotspur.  Ever since Harry Reilly put us one goal in front of Spurs as all-time record FA Cup goalscorers we seem to have poked a rather angry cockerel.....

Anyone not a Poppies fan needs to know 2 things about being "All-time top FA Cup goalscorers" 

(1) literally no-one outside the NN15 / NN16 postcode gives a flying f*ck about the record.

(2)  No one inside the same NN15 / NN16 postcode has ever put as much work into finding out who has let the most goals IN in the FA Cup.....

Whenever we've reached the top of the goalscoring pile in the past we've patted ourselves on the back but the rest of the footballing world has treated the news as very much of "local interest" only.

However, this time, no sooner had the various Poppies media outlets announced we'd climbed one goal above our illustrious but otherwise oblivious Premier League rivals, their supporters bit back and for 5 minutes we felt what was like to be Arsenal in their eyes.

Wow.  When Spurs fans bite, THEY BITE.  So, to answer a few of their points, in no particular order -

• Yes, the capacity of Latimer Park lags somewhat behind that of the imaginatively named "Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
• Yes, we've played a lot of teams from lower divisions than ourselves.  Unlike yourselves presumably.
• Yes, we come into the competition earlier.  We also invariably go out of it a lot earlier too.
• No, we haven't actually won the FA Cup.  Mind you, we've won it the same number of times as Tottenham have since Nirvana first stumbled into a recording studio.

Historically Spurs were never near the top of the FACA-TGS chart.  But, over the past decade or so the footballing Gods have been extraordinarily kind to them.  Not kind enough to let them actually win the competition, but, given some of the clubs they have drawn, they bloody well should have!

In the last dozen seasons, other than numerous Championship and League One sides, they've come up against the mighty footballing forces of Cheltenham, Stevenage, Colchester, Wycombe twice, AFC Wimbledon, Newport, Marine and Morecambe.  I'm sure they all tried their best against Tottenham.  They certainly gave it their best when they all played the Poppies in recent seasons!

Even when playing slightly more elevated clubs Spurs have managed to wangle quite a few goal-strewn replays to bolster their tally.  In 2010 alone they had goal-filled replays against Leeds, Bolton and Fulham.  They've since followed up by dipping their wicks into several other lower league teams by drawing away and stuffing them back at White Hart Lane.

We might need to get our shooting boots on against Hitchin because I get a sense the lowest placed team in the FA Cup 3rd round may well be planning a trip to North London in a few months time.....

"Fackin Hell, Reilly's just
scored against Sporting Khalsa!"

Still Nothing to See Here.....

So, we have a number of working, live links on our Blog.  What about the other links you might, or, more likely, not ask?  Well, if we've still got your attention, we'll run through the other runners and riders. 

 

Latimer Park Diary - WHAT'S ON AT LATIMER PARK (google.com)

Long since abandoned as a resource as it's completely empty, and yet we all know that events are happening on an almost hourly basis!

Poppies Trust Website - www.poppiestrust.co.uk

Site Down!  Site Down!  A new site is incoming but for now, this one is kaput.

Tin Hat Podcast - Login to your Podbean Account | Podbean

Who'd have thought that a podcast entirely geared to listening to Poppies fans having a moan had no "legs."

Tinhat's Unofficial Site - COMING SOON (poppiesfans.com)

A much lamented loss to the Internet.  This was a fantastic resource, run from the States and often more up-to-date than the Club's official online organ.

KTFC Community - www.ktfc-community.com

Gone now.  Don't remember it, certainly don't miss it.  Perhaps it was a forerunner for this one?  Kettering Town | KTFC Community Trust | Burton Latimer

P.R.A.T.S. - P.R.A.T.S. (pratsktfc.com)

Still live but rarely updated.  Perhaps the assembled PRATS have taken the pledge.......

Poppies TV - KTFC Season Tickets (ketteringtownfc.com)

There's something there vaguely offering season tickets / parking etc., but we're pretty sure it's been superseded?

This isn't Kettering - This isn't Kettering | A season not watching football in Kettering (wordpress.com)

27 Years and Counting - ..... (darrenktfc.blogspot.com)

Come on you Poppies - Come On You Poppies – The story of my Kettering Town journey (wordpress.com)

Up the Poppies - #UTP UP THE POPPIES! (ktfcblog.blogspot.com)

Four, count 'em, FOUR sites where people took the time and care to set-up a Poppies-themed blog or website only to get bored after a handful of posts.  Bless!  That initial, fabulous thought for an article will carry you through the setting up process and laying out your wares for the Kettering public.  Then what?  It's that difficult "second album" syndrome.  You've introduced yourself and set out your stall.  Suddenly it's been 6-months between posts, and you've probably forgotten the password anyway....Clue - it was probably KTFC1872.

This is the 1441st post on online Patgod.  If nothing else this proves that to run a semi-successful blog you need -

(A) To be able to find-the-funny in the face of often not very funny situations

(B) No-one to impart your wisdom to at games (thus keeping ideas under your hat for the blog)

(C) No life.

So young -
So full of hope
So many changes coming....

Nothing To See Here

Every so often, when REALLY bored we will have a quick trawl through the "People Who Write About The Poppies" links on the right hand side of the version of Patgod viewable on your computer screen to make sure they all still work.  The same links might appear on the Mobile version of the website but we're buggered if we can see where....

Presently the links seem to split into three broad categories -  Links that are working.  Links that are working but the content is lacking or out of date.  And links that are deader than our promotion prospects.

First up - the Good Links -

GOING GREAT GUNS!

Poppies Media - (4) Kettering Town FC - YouTube

Bang up to date with Andy's non-excuse excuses and footage of our players being turned inside out by acknowledged giants of the game such as Barwell and Redditch.

Club Facebook Page - Facebook

As above, but with added photographs of pizza vans.

Club Twitter Account - Kettering Town FC (@KTFCOfficial) / X (twitter.com)

As above but with added minute-by-minute matchday anguish.

Club Website - Kettering Town Football Club | Official Website | Official News (ketteringtownfc.com)

As above, but with more photographs of Gary Stohrer.

Poppies Trust Facebook Page - Kettering Town 'Poppies' Supporters Trust | Facebook

Probably gearing up again for these "interesting times"

Poppies Trust Twitter Page - Poppies Trust KTFC (@poppiestrust) / X (twitter.com)

As  above but with added Elon Musk insane interjections.

Football Web Pages - Kettering Town | Form Guide | Last 6 Matches | Football Web Pages

A bang-up-to-date website with all current scores and League tables.  Unfortunately.

National League Website - The Vanarama National League (thenationalleague.org.uk)

Oops!  Must get rid of this.

Northamptonshire Telegraph Sports - Football Latest News | Northamptonshire Telegraph (northantstelegraph.co.uk)

All the latest stories and interviews helpfully obliterated by a million adverts.

News Now - NewsNow: Kettering Town news | Every Source, Every Five Minutes, 24/7 news

Some sort of hosting site that has links to current KTFC news.  Just in case you weren't already aware of how things were going.....

KTFC Supporters Travel Club - K.T.F.C. Supporters Travel Club | Facebook

Helpful site to offer you travel to away games in the company of other sad acts who perversely enjoy going ever further to watch almost guaranteed defeats.

Kettering FC - Welcome to the official website of Kettering FC | Kettering, Northamptonshire

Not sure how current this site is but we leave it here as a salutary lesson of how close we came to being this club.

Buy your own Gary Stohrer HERE!

LONG THROWS by Graham Jones

Semi regular contributor Graham Jones is annoyed.  And rather than aim a kick at his cat, he has put digits to keyboard and shared his annoyance with us.  We now share it with you. 

Don't forget, if something at KTFC is getting your goat (as if!) you too have the option of tapping out an angry article which we will happily host for literally dozens of fellow fans to see.

Over to you, Graham - 

"Anyone of a certain age will probably remember Rory Delap, the first player to become well-known for having a long throw-in. He of course was copied for a time, but I do not recall the use of the tactic of launching the ball into the penalty area becoming a constant tool in a manager’s armoury. Later, we had our own expert in the exotically named Exodus Geohaghon, who disappointingly failed to recreate his expertise in the recent legends match.

This attacking option is still sometimes used by many teams, even in the top divisions, but is sometimes disapproved of by other managers. This is something I have never quite understood as it gives a team a fairly simple chance to put the ball into a potentially dangerous area. You would not expect every corner to be a short corner so why not treat throw-ins in the same way. I have never been keen on short corners simply because they often don’t lead to the ball causing issues for defenders. In fact, the only goal that I can remember seeing that came from a short corner was when the opposition won the ball after a short pass and then broke away and scored!

This slight rant has been inspired by my current state of frustration when the Poppies. Well, one of them anyway. I don’t know when this constant use of this boring, ineffective tactic started, but it seems as if virtually every throw-in that we have had in the last 4 or so years, and within 30 yards of the penalty area, has meant that currently Rhys Sharpe takes a long throw. This happens even if he has to run 50 yards from the opposite side of the pitch before he takes the unsuccessful throw. The way that referees are seemingly keen to get a claim in for overtime with the amount of added time now being added, it might even happen soon that, if we ever happen to be winning again when near the end of a game, 

Sharpe could be penalised for time-wasting. This would be appropriate as most of our throws are a waste of time. The throws very rarely lead to goals, in fact, they very rarely even lead to a Kettering player heading the ball first. It is easy to wonder whether they are practised in training, given the small amount of time available. At best, the ball might drop in the 6-yard box and cause panic and confusion leading to a melee, as Cookie describes it in his commentaries, but even that usually just leads to a defender booting it clear.

This of course can happen quite a few times in a game as the vast majority of throws-in lead to this tactic. This is certainly not just down to our current manager as the last 3 or 4 managers have all employed this method. I can only assume Paul Cox stuck some diagrams on the wall and they haven’t been taken down yet."

"Back a bit.  A bit more.  A bit more.


A bit more....."

St Ives - Home

And the lessons from the Bank Holiday Monday game?  Firstly, don't leave early.  Secondly, I hope the club are banking plenty of money from the current excellent home gates, because they might not be quite so high in the coming weeks and months....

Redditch - Away

So, what did our latest trip to the Valley teach us?

Other than marvelling again at how a club can continue to thrive with a bare handful of unpleasant fans and even more unpleasant management team the main take-away from Redditch is for Sam Bennett.  Sam, when a goalkeeper obviously has it in for your personally and simply REFUSES to let any attempt by you pass him, perhaps call it a day early and let others have a shot!

Halesowen - home

 So, what did the Halesowen game teach us?

Personally, I learned I really should sort out my free tea and coffee voucher.

The club might have learned a couple of things.  Firstly, the danger of having the pitch play so well is that opposition teams are happy to come along and play us off of it.  And we need to consider the cost-effectiveness of employing new players every week if only debutants are able to score....

Barwell - away

And what did we learn from our latest humbling at the hands of the mighty Barwell (population roughly the same as Desborough).  It might have been, since when did Dan Homan start playing football again?  And why can't we seem to engage this sort of experienced pro?

Or the lesson might have been to wonder why our players seemed to move and react at roughly half the speed of the opposition?

More than likely though, we learned that the betting slip upon which we had staked money on the Poppies to bounce straight back into National North need not be protected and stored as safely now as it was 10-days ago.

Stourbridge - home

If there's one definite we can draw from Saturday's jaw-dropping capitulation to Stourbridge it might well be that is doesn't matter who owns the club, who's in charge, who plays for us, or even where we play our home games - 

- The Poppies will invariably find a way to shit-the-bed in front of a big crowd.

Gary Stohrer Look-a-likes No. 632 and 633

 

"Awright Gazza."
"Awright Gazza."

The other Kettering

Usually, towns enter into twinning arrangements because of some shared feature: size, industry, heritage, physical location. Kettering UK is twinned with Kettering Ohio because they possess the same name – that’s it, period. Not the most imaginative pairing.  However, your favourite Poppies blog couldn’t leave it there, and so at great expense we flew our correspondent all the way to the US of A to investigate further.

Ok, I was there already, but here’s the thing. I had reason to travel to the fine city of Cincinnati, and looking at a map noted that Kettering, Ohio was (by American standards) quite close by. So in a spirit of civic exchange I set off to explore our namesake and in the process discover if we had more in common than a shared moniker.

The first discovery was that Kett, OH isn’t actually a town as we would call it. It actually describes itself as a city, but in reality is an outer suburb of Dayton. There is no obvious beginning or end to Kettering, apart from road signs that mark the boundary from identical areas of townships.

The next discovery was there is no discernible centre of our American twin. I headed down what I took to be the main road through town, expecting at some point to see a square, some older buildings, a courthouse, something. I was still looking when passing a sign announcing the next suburb.  So I doubled back by a different route, lured by something called ‘Kettering Towne Center’. Turned out to be a crappy shopping mall – so we have that in common.    

Say what you like about our Kettering, but at least you know when you’re in the middle of it.

This was all the more strange when the streets were lined with banners proclaiming ‘Kettering is home’ to this or that. It suggested a proud community bursting with distinctive features. Perhaps, but not immediately obvious! On our side, yes the town is generally shite but you can’t miss Wickies.  

By now I was curious to find the sporting heart of our transatlantic doppelganger. Google revealed no results for ‘Kettering soccer club’, but ‘football’ worked better. Of course this meant the version with shoulder pads and helmets, but let's take a look.  Down a side road I found the Chester A Roush stadium, home to the Firebirds.  It was basically a school ground, but on an American scale, which means opposing stands with enough seating capacity for League Two at least.

No idea who Chester A Roush is (or was) but the stadium named in his honour was blessed by an old Poppies scarf, left behind like the flag on the moon – and most likely in a trash can by the time you read this. 

So Kettering Ohio, thanks for the memories. It was great to visit, because now I actually feel better about the original version.

Coming up: Lahnstein – is it more than just an excuse for an exchange trip piss up?  

Stamford - away

Don't worry, we're not going to, at this ridiculously late stage, start to write match reports.  That takes a level of attention, concentration and dedication we simply aren't capable of.  No, instead, this season we're going to see if we can come up with at least one observation from each of the Poppies games we see.  It may be a hopefully amusing observation. Or perhaps a curious one you hadn't considered.  More than likely it will be something startlingly, eye-rollingly obvious that, for reasons known only to us, we thought might be in some small way interesting and worth relating.

Stamford.

If the game at Stamford taught us anything it could well have been, if the opposition goalkeeper literally can't save, hold or judge anything resembling a football for fully 96 minutes, and looks like he might shit himself every time we cross the halfway line it might be a good tactic to kick the ball at him a few more times.  Certainly the first thing he cleanly holds all day shouldn't be his win bonus.

See you for the Stourbridge game!

A Tale of Two Chairmen

In the past week (fortnight, I lose track these days?) or so two former Poppies Chairmen have had the barefaced cheek to get involved in the world of football again.  It makes you wonder why.  Surely being Chairman of the Poppies for more than five minutes would put you off being involved in any sort of organised sport ever again, let alone football.

While Dave Mahoney's appointment to the Vice Chairmanship of the Northants Senior Youth League has been pretty much positively received by the Poppies faithful, Ritchie Jeune's joining of the Jersey Bulls Board has been met with a frostier reception.  Admittedly this has been on social media by pretty much the same people who enjoyed hounding him out of the Poppies in the first place, but it made for familiarly depressing reading.

What do they want of Ritchie?  They didn't want him here and made that clear.  Now they're not keen on him being at another club.  Some of the criticism of him came across as petty, some was borderline stupid given the fact he still OWNS our club.  You don't have to bend over and hold your cheeks apart for Ritchie, but considering he can end the Poppies with the stroke of a pen perhaps box a little cleverer when abusing the guy?

looks curiously a lot happier when he puts
a large body of water between himself and the Poppies

Grey Army! Grey Army! Grey Army!

We are constantly being told that us oldsters are becoming ever too numerous and act solely as a drain on society.  We're working longer, keeping young people out of good jobs.  We live too long and eat all the social care budget.  We get too much handed to us free of charge by successive Governments who need to attract the grey vote.

And a good thing too.  Young people are crap at working, they don't particularly need the NHS (except when falling drunk in the street on Saturday night because they also can't handle their ale) and Governments HAVE to appeal to us as young people are too apathetic to trouble voting booths.

And now, we're coming for your sports too!

Historically, sport has been annoyingly dominated by the young, slim and fit.  But, not anymore!  The door has opened a crack and we're going to waddle through and steal this from the young 'uns too!

That's right, the world of sport has finally realised the only people who can truly afford to shell out for all the required equipment are those people no longer physically able to actually play.  The answer?  Adapt the sport to better suit those with the time and funds to get involved.  

Thus Walking Sport was born.

Given how many old gits who KNOW EVERYTHING about football we have at Latimer Park we should be able to attract hundreds of players to these new sessions being held at the club.

Well, your correspondent attended the first session and can report it was good fun.  I sweated my absolute chubby ass off.  I had a laugh with the other guys who were also sweating as much as 1970 Top of the Pops hosts when they received a call from Operation Yewtree.  We kicked a ball about and tried not to break into a stumbling stutter which passes for running when you're staring down the barrel of 60! 

Sure, the next day every muscle in my body teetered on the edge of cramping.  And I have a pain on the outside of my right foot that has made me hobble for a week and swear at the cat.  But I'm going back, no doubt to be one of a dozen people offering to go in goal this week!  

So, if you're over 50, and have the most rudimentary footballing ability (sorry, John Fowler) pop along and see what you've been missing since you last had a full head of hair!

Once a pr*ck

 

Always a pr*ck

One hundred and fifty one and counting.

I'm really trying to get on-board with this latest iteration of the Poppies.  Cut adrift by our cheque-book wielding Chairman we are now a club that needs to generate every penny we spend.  Large numbers of Poppies supporters have come forward with initiatives and money-making ventures.  The club's management board is entirely made up of fellow Poppies fans who are working hard to prepare us for the forthcoming season.  There's stuff going on in the clubhouse every week.  Everyone is being positive and pulling in the same direction.  Even our small online collection of malcontents are either being encouraging or just resting their dumb-ass mouths for the Summer (probably looking forward to the upcoming school holiday?)

I'm really trying to join in and be happy, bouncy and positive.  Honestly.

But it's hard when our fixtures are announced and we have to play f*cking Redditch again.  

Why God, WHY?  Can't we ever just leave them permanently in our rear view mirror?  Is it too much to ask?

Not that I've got an especial problem with Redditch (although I have).  I could just have easily singled out St. Ives or Stratford or Coalville or Alvechurch or Barwell or Royston or Hitchen.  Partly it's depressing we've dropped back down to play these teams again, at their drizzly, grey, insular-minded, sparsely populated hovels (IT'S CALLED IRONY, BEFORE YOU LOSE YOUR SH*T) but mainly because these clubs will all be laying in wait for us to give us a bloody good kick-in after we thought we'd waved goodbye to them forever.  Back then we were the big boys, bolstered by Ritchie's funds.  We put together a great team and took gleeful pleasure in slapping them all around while sauntering to a League triumph.

Now, we return to the Southern League, chastened, leaderless, with an unknown Management and team.  And they'll all be waiting for us.  Angry, tough and bitter.  Ready to give us a, probably well-deserved, battering on their gleaming 4G pitches.  By rights, Telford should be the team everyone targets, but few of the clubs we will be playing will have have much history with them.  No, they'll be scanning the fixture list for the Poppies and the chance to hand out some payback.

It's all so depressing.  Festive period fixtures against Redditch, St Ives and Stratford.  Hand me my pearl-handled revolver now.  Last game of the season we travel to enjoy the hostility of the f*ckwit psychopaths of Nuneaton.  Even our ONE trip to the seaside has been scheduled for a Tuesday night FFS!  If I want to see the sea this season I'm going to have to visit Skegness.  Christ, as if things weren't grim enough already.....

Welcome to Redditch-on-Sea

How Much?! Jeez....

You'll find no-one more desperately unhappy when we were bodily ripped from our true home of Rockingham Road than the Patgod posse.  No-one who wanted to help achieve the unrealisable return to our ancestral home once we were turfed out more than we did.  We signed all the petitions, and took part in all the marches.  We stood outside the Council offices and chanted our lungs raw at our uncaring, hive-minded, bean-counting Tory councillors.

We too looked on with stupefied horror as parts of the stadium were knocked down.  The main stand came down in a screech of grinding metal matched only by our collective screech of horror.  The mighty "K" floodlights were brought majestically to earth with barely a whisper.  Matching our silent disbelief.  While the ground stood there was always hope.  Always the dream of a miraculous return....

The rest of the stadium was cleared away and for the longest time we looked forlornly at the pointless wasteland our beloved former home had become.   "Look what they did to my boy" as Don Corelone once wailed.

Then they started building housing on OUR ground adding the final, flimsy built, shitty-cardboard, rabbit hutch, commuter-scum insult to the indelible injury we had all suffered.

Now this.  We can hardly bring ourselves to look at the pernicious Estate Agent website.  They are looking to parcel up our history and sell it to the highest bidder.  We can barely see through our tears to look at such unapologetic, untarnished, capitalist greed.

 

Mmmm.

That all said, if I knew how stupidly expensive the properties could be I'd have gladly lent a hand and a sledgehammer and helped pulverise our delapidated old dump myself!  

Loadsamoney!  Kerching!

Every Little Helps, I guess

The club has thrown open the doors for volunteers to help with numerous tasks around Latimer Park.

This can only be a good thing.  The more the fans get a glimpse behind the scenes at just how a club of our size is run, the more they will appreciate the astonishing amount of hard, unglamorous work that goes into giving us 90 minutes of football on a Saturday afternoon.

We at Patgod have felt sufficiently fired up with pre-season zeal to look to lend a hand.

Unfortunately, we can't see any requirements for jaded world-weariness, inappropriate scorn, sarcasm or taking pleasure in mocking any and everything.

No, it seems the club are seeking folks with distinct and discernable talents.

Ah well, better luck next time.

Keeping up with Poppies news....

 ....the Northamptonshire Telegraph way....

We may have signed a new player.

Or lost one.

Or gone bust.

Your guess is as good as ours!

"It could have been us....."

I'm not sure which fact is the more outlandish.  That Luton Town and Kenilworth Road will be featuring on Match of the Day next season or that little old us, not that long ago, for a few seasons, were pretty much their local league rivals.  During our last (ever?) flirtation with the National League we came up against Luton who were finding getting back into the Football League infinitely harder than they imagined it would be.  I think the medical term is Wrexhamitis.

The first game between the much-reduced Hatters and the Ladak-funded Poppies was an early season 0-0 in August 2009 in front of over 3000 at Rockingham Road.  This result was bettered when we won the return game at Kenilworth Road in early December.  A Ritchie Partridge thunderbolt was the only goal of the game in front of over 6500, of which 6300 of the attendees gnashed their teeth for fully 90 minutes.  This was my first visit to Kenilworth Road and yes, if you've never been there, everything you've heard about the place is true.  A dog-rough ground in a dog-rough area of a dog-rough town.  Yes, you do clamber up a stairway that allows you to look into the neighbours gardens and bathroom windows.  And yes, the away end has the narrowest seating imaginable.  Anyone over 5' 6" has to watch the proceedings sitting side-saddle.

No, me neither...

In the 2010-2011 season Luton hit back at the Poppies by winning 3-1 at Rockingham Road in another early season fixture.  Luton were assisted by us having Ian Roper and Iysden Christie sent off (lessening the weight of the Poppies on-field team by roughly 50%).  Amazingly, the match-ball was claimed by future Poppies nobody Matthew Barnes-Homer who probably didn't notch three touches of the ball during his Poppies "career" let alone three goals.

The return fixture that season was the only game against Luton I wasn't present for.  Instead I had to rely on Radio Luton Town FC's completely unbiased and factually inaccurate commentary - I lost track of how many times we were referred to as "Kidderminster".  We threw on future England International Callum Wilson to try and grab us an equaliser late on, but that role was ably filled by Danny Mills with a last minute goal to secure a 2-2 draw.  Much to the complete disbelief and disgust of the radio commentators who couldn't accept the mighty Hatters had not beaten lowly Kidderminster.

I'd like to say that this is where our interactions with Luton came to a natural end.  A win each and a couple of draws.  Honour satisfied.  Unfortunately we faced off against the Hatters for one more season.  A season I think we'd all rather forget.  The one that started with a new stadium and signing players from Real Madrid (!) and ended with the club almost being wound-up and George Rolls trying to get his slippery paws on the levers of power.  

By this time the league had decided that the Poppies and the Hatters were pretty much local rivals and assigned us the Boxing Day / New Years Day honours.  By the time the Christmas period rolled around Imraan had forgone any pretence at being interested in his football club and a team with a pair of barely interested Ifil's, a punch-drunk Jamie Navarro and a couple of substitutes lost 5-0 in a game where Laurie Walker was our MOM by a country mile.  Without him God alone knows what the final score might have been.  10-0?  15-0?  He seemed to personally prevent future Poppy Aaron O'Connor scoring a dozen on his own.  

The return match a week later saw our Heroes manage to lose by the same score.  This time though Jerel Ifil was nowhere to be seen and Phil Ifil couldn't even be bothered to stay on the pitch for half the match, shrugging his way to another red card.  The only winner that day, Luton obviously excepted, was Imraan.  I doubt very much if any of the £20 entrance fees the 1500 (2000?) Luton supporters coughed up made it into authorised KTFC coffers.....

And there you have it.  Not many seasons later and while we are girding our loins for the upcoming visits of Barwell, St Ives and Redditch (jeez....not again), Luton are busy preparing themselves to receive the cream of the Premier League.  And Tottenham.