Yellows fail to turn up to the Kettering mud bath

It wasn’t the Yellow’s evening on Tuesday night, as we lost out to Kettering. We made a few changes to the lineup. Bradbrook returned between the sticks, with the unchanged backline of Lewis, Oluwatimilehin, and Dickens in front. In midfield, Ben came back into the team to form a midfield four of Pinnington, Hunter, Turner, and Dunne. In attack we had Neal, Allen, and Ololade. On the bench we had, Philp, Brown, Tarpey, Napa and Page.

It was a scrappy, but promising, start to the Match for the Suds, but we were forced into a very early change as Joe Neal was forced off and replaced by Malachi Napa. Mid way through the half we found ourselves having a nice spell. Jacob Pinnington hit a low shot just wide of the post, and Josh Allen forced a very good save. However, there was a moment of panic as Bradders rushed out and wiped out the attacker. Chants of “Off” echoed around the stadium, but he only received a yellow card. In the end, the flag was up anyway. Not long after that, the home side took the lead. Jarvis’ first shot was saved, his second shot hit the post, but his third was tapped into the back of the net. We looked for a quick reply, but Mal hit wide.

Half-Time: Kettering Town 1-0 AFC Sudbury

In the second half, we aimed to come out of the blocks quickly, similarly to how we did at Telford. Unfortunately, it was the home side who started quicker and two minutes after the restart when Yussuf fired in, after Bradders had made a good save. Towards the end of the match, we came into the game a bit more. Ben Hunter hit a strong effort which the ‘keeper stopped, and from the resulting corner the goalie made a fantastic save on the line to deny JT. In the final minutes, Ben tried to tee up Josh Allen, but he hit his shot over the bar.

Full-Time Kettering Town 2-0 AFC Sudbury

Well, that didn’t go to plan. A tough match, on a tough pitch, on which we just didn’t quite get going. However, it is not over. We must Believe. We must not give up. Next up we have Hitchin, and another huge match.

UP THE SUDS

By Isaac Mennie