BISHOP STORTFORD PROGRAMME NOTES 14th December 2024

 

Dear Supporter

 

It was good whilst it lasted but our great FA Cup run has come to an end.  We pushed Doncaster all the way but couldn’t quite get across the line.  We absolutely did not let ourselves down and definitely felt disappointed that we couldn’t put the game to bed – heads can be held high and the memories of this cup run can be filed away and be added alongside those of Leeds, Fulham, and Charlton etc. 

 

On the back of this, the Trust will be resuming its sponsor an FA Cup goal initiative – probably early in the New Year.  We got as far as sponsoring the first 892 goals which were put on the board below and displayed in the ground.  They have subsequently been taken down to make way for ground improvements but we are sure they will find their way back up once we sell the current 31 goals.  Look out for further details coming soon.

  

Thank you to everyone who paid to have their name on the Working Together Boards and also joined the Trust.  Both boards are filled now and on display in the ground - go and check your name out.

 

With Christmas literally just around the corner why not help raise money for the Trust by ordering your gifts via  We have raised over £1200 in the last few years.  It is an easy way to shop.  All you need to do is go to www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/ketteringtownpoppiessupporterstrust and join for free.  Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping.  After you’ve checked out, that retailer will make a donation to the Trust for no extra cost whatsoever! 

 

Today, we welcome Bishop Stortford to Latimer Park.  For some reason, with typical Poppies imprecision, my recollection of our previous pair of fixtures against them back in the 2017-8 season is negligible compared to the games against them in the 2003-4 Isthmian League season of woe.  This, despite us doing the double over them in 2017-8 and scoring eight goals to nil over the two fixtures.  Back in 2003-4 the away humping at Bishop Stortford in the first game of January 2004 was a thoroughly miserable experience.  We meekly surrendered 4-1 at the Blues’ Woodside Park stadium on an afternoon of such achingly freezing weather that, to this day, I only have to think of this game and my teeth chatter.  I swear that the marrow in my bones froze that day.  Just over a month later, in the return fixture, the Poppies were, if anything, at an even lower ebb.  In a season where finishing in the top half of the table would funnel us into the inaugural season of Nationwide North, we were, in mid-February, in serious danger of missing the cut.  By the time Bishop Stortford visited Rockingham Road we had lost 14 league games to a number of acknowledged footballing giants such as Ford United and Heybridge Swifts.

 

We overcame Bishop Stortford 3-2 and, frankly didn’t look back again, losing only one more game all season to finish 9^th and thus sneak into Nationwide North the following season (it was much easier back then!)

 

The Blues were relegated out of Conference North last season.  Nobody likes relegation but that must have been a long old slog for them playing away to the likes of Spennymoor etc.

 

Let’s continue our good form and grab those three points!

 

Karen Spencer-Lewis

Supporters Trust

Kettering Town (Poppies) Supporters Trust, PO Box 6492, Kettering, NN16 0YT

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enquiries@poppiestrust.co.uk

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Trust Board Members:  Karen Spencer-Lewis (Chair), Mark Severn (Treasurer),

Richard Atkinson (Vice Chairman), Bill Pringle, Lewis Horne, Martin Bellamy, Dave Tailby and Ed Palmer.