Law already looking ahead as Poppies hit the top again

Marcus Law is targeting a big finish to January after Kettering Town moved back to the top of the Evo-Stik South League Premier with a 4-2 success at Merthyr Town.

Goals from Aaron O’Connor, Rene Howe, Mathew Stevens and Brett Solkhon put the Poppies 4-0 up inside 56 minutes in South Wales and they went on to complete the win, despite the hosts pulling two goals back.

With morning leaders King’s Lynn Town being held to a 1-1 draw by Weymouth, the victory was enough to send Law’s men a point clear at the summit.

However, title favourites Hereford maintained their own good form with a 1-0 win at Dorchester Town to stay two points behind the Poppies with four games in hand. The Bulls could take over at the top if they win at Biggleswade Town on Tuesday night.

But, with his team “well in the mix”, Kettering boss Law insists his team must continue to focus on their own performances as they now look ahead to a home clash with Biggleswade at Latimer Park next Saturday.

“I have said for a while that there will be numerous ups and downs and that will be the case, there’s no doubt about it,” Law said. “We are heading into that period of the season where our fans and board members will be having one eye on their phones on the scores from elsewhere as well as our games.

“But we are well in the mix and we have a huge home game next weekend because our points tally for this month is not great so we need to finish it well. “King’s Lynn and Weymouth obviously took points off each other and that’s what will happen.

“But I know Hereford are the ones people are talking about and they are have some interesting games coming up.

“Like I have said before, if they pull away and win all of their games then they will have earned everything they get.

“All we can do is keep ourselves in the mix and the only way we can do that is concentrating on ourselves and winning matches.” Law was pleased with what he saw at Merthyr as Kettering finally overcame their travel sickness, having struggled in games after long journeys this season.

He added: “We said in the week that preparation was important but we had to get our team selection and shape right and I think we did.

“We had to be a bit more solid, the target was to make sure we didn’t allow the opposition into the game for the first hour and we did that. “One of our big problems in the long away trips is that we have given two or more goals away in the first hour and it left us with a mountain to climb.

But it was a good first half, it gave us the foundation to go on and win the game. “The attacking players all scored a goal and complemented each other really well so we are pleased with how it went.”

Source Jon Dunham - Northants Telegraph