Kettering 0 - 1 U's
What's that I see on the horizon? It must be the glorious glow of mid-table mediocrity beckoning United forward; good bye Grays, hello Hayes and Yeading. Farewell Forest Green, ahoy Altrincham. The race for 12th is back on.
Excuse the heady optimism, but I think I'm still in shock at having seen United win a match. It wasn't the prettiest of victories, and indeed we were under the cosh for much of the first half. But we showed good resolve to match a very physical Kettering side, and had a few chances to win the match in the second period before Carlos Crow finally found the net.
The victory at least went some way to justifying the £16 admission price at Rockingham Road, if indeed anything can truly justify paying that amount of money to stand on a piece of sloping concrete and watch two terrible football teams scrap it out for 90 minutes. Kettering are hopeless, and the fact that they are still in contention for the play-offs says more about the lack of quality in the Blue Square Premier than it does about Lee Harper's managerial skills.
To be fair the Poppies weren't so hopeless that they couldn't dominate the first half, as United ceded possession to their hosts time and time again. Simon Brown had to be at his best to parry away an Elliot Charles effort which took a slight deflection en route to goal, before leaping to touch a Jordan Hadfield shot over the bar. Hadfield did beat the U's keeper with a curling effort from 25 yards, but this flew just wide of the post.
United had their chances on the break, with full debutant Callum Willock putting in an impressive stint of line-leading. If he continues this kind of form Big Phill's days could be numbered. Scott Neilson wasn't so impressive, doing little of note until his lofted through ball found Danny Crow all alone just inside the area, but he dragged an angled shot across goal and wide when he really should have tested Zema's bro, Nathan Abbey, in the Kettering goal.
It was a different story in the second half, with Willock and the previously quiet Simon Russell instigating a good number of promising attacks. Kettering were still a threat, especially from set pieces, and Aiden Palmer had to clear one header from roly-poly defender Ian Roper off the line after a well worked set piece.
But it was United who claimed the only goal of the game, seconds after Abbey had made a tremendous double to stop a header from Crow, then smuggle Neilson's follow up behind for a corner. The initial flag kick from Russell was cleared back to the on-loan York man, whose centre came off a gaggle of defenders and was picked up by Crow, who controlled the ball before firing high into the net. 1-0.
Kettering put together a bit of an on-slaught in the closing stages, but Brown wasn't really troubled unduly. The only scare came, naturally enough, following a corner, which one of their substitutes blasted high over the bar from close range. Three minutes of injury time were successfully negotiated with the help of the U's travelling faithful, who provoked a foul-mouthed tirade from Poppies captain John Dempster when they kept the ball after it had gone over the advertising hoardings.
Lingy would be justified in feeling particularly smug after our recent upturn in form. Our unbeaten run has coincided with him fielding a line up predominantly made up of his own players, and we now look (mostly) solid at the back and offer a sporadic but significant threat in attack. If we continue to apply ourselves in such a fashion any lingering relegation fears will soon be vanquished.
Man of the Match: Simon Brown - Two or three excellent saves from the big stopper, who also displayed sound handling when dealing with Kettering's numerous set pieces.
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