Poppies 0 Northampton Town 1



The Poppies’ preparations for the new Blue Square Bet Premier campaign started with a 1-0 home defeat to League Two neighbours Northampton Town.

It was Lee Harper’s new-look side’s first outing of pre-season and the manager used 21 players throughout the 90 minutes.

Kettering’s starting line-up included new signings Luke Graham, Sol Davis, Iyseden Christie and Ashley Westwood, who wore the captain’s armband in the first half.

Trialists Alex Dyer – playing against his former club – and Tyrone Berry also featured as did youngster Lewis Legore in the opening period.

Moses Ashikodi missed the game as he continues his rehabilitation after knee surgery earlier in the summer while Jean-Paul Marna was unavailable.

The Cobblers had the better of the early stages and Nathan Abbey saved well from Billy McKay after he skipped into the penalty area.

The Poppies responded with Christie sweeping a pass out to Marcus Kelly and he cut inside but saw his shot deflected away for a corner.

However, it was the visitors who opened the scoring when Marcus Hall’s low left-wing cross was finished off by Kevin Thornton who shot low into the corner.

The remainder of the first half was scrappy, although John Dempster had a header saved by Chris Dunn just before half-time and Kelly fired an effort high and wide.

Lee Harper made nine changes at the break with Brett Solkhon making his return in a Poppies shirt while trialist Guylain Nsungu started up front alongside James Dance.

And Dance almost equalised when he latched onto Solkhon’s clever through-ball but his shot was palmed away for a corner by Dunn.

Abbey managed to prevent Steve Guinan from doubling Northampton’s lead and Dunn was forced to save again when Mark Pryor’s shot seemed to deceive him.

Liam Davis curled an effort wide at the other end and Alex Konstantinou saw a chip bounce off the crossbar.

Courtney Herbert sent a late header just wide for the visitors but there were no further goals.




Kettering starting line-up: Abbey, Dempster, Graham, Westwood, Davis, Legore, Dyer, Boucaud, Kelly, Berry, Christie.

Kettering second half starting line-up: Abbey (sub Cooper), Wrack, Roper, Graham, Taylor, Carrillo, Noubissie, Solkhon, Pryor, Dance, Nsungu.

Attendance: 857 (away fans 280).

Poppies man of the match Luke Graham