Today’s
visitors, Leiston FC arrive at Latimer Park comfortably mid-table, but knowing
that a run of good results could put them in the midst of the incredibly
crowded play-off chase. Equally, they
don’t need me to remind them that a dodgy run might leave them fighting for
their status in the division.
The fact
that Leiston are even in this division is a tribute to a club that hails from a
town the size of Brixworth. Not only
that, but Leiston boasts TWO senior clubs, with Leiston St Margarets FC also
pulling in punters from the same small supporter pool.
Everything I
know about Leiston FC I gleaned during a holiday in Suffolk this past September
when the Poppies Trust Chairman and myself took in the enormous and presumably
grudge-filled, “East/West Suffolk” derby between them and their visitors from
Sudbury. And all of the
insider-information was gathered in a pre-match chat with a couple of local
supporters happy, if bemused, that Kettering fans would be boosting the modest
attendance on such a foul, sodden Tuesday evening.
Leiston have
a small, modern stadium with a scant standing cover. What cover that was on offer was most welcome
given the torrential rain that accompanied the warm-up and the first half of
the game. The pitch at Victory Road though,
was so good that the game was never in question. Their billiard-table flat playing surface is
of a quality we can only dream of in this corner of Northamptonshire. I’m already looking forward to seeing
Lavery’s charges enjoy themselves on it to the full next March.
In our short
playing history with Leiston, although we have won both of our games in
Suffolk, we have yet to defeat them at Latimer Park. In our first pair of fixtures in 2019, on our
way to winning this division, Leiston beat us 2-1 at Latimer Park early in the
season with a decisive strike five minutes from time. In the return fixture we went one better when
Aaron O’Connor scored the only goal of the game, late into stoppage time. Last season the deadly then Poppies, now Spalding
United strike force of Tyrone Lewthwaite and Sam Bennett scored the goals for
us as we won the away in one of the very, very few highlights of Andy Leese’s
tenure. The return fixture here finished
2-2, but this came after we’d pulled ourselves clear of any relegation worries,
so we’ll let that one slide, although I probably wasn’t so sanguine on the day. Our goals came through Bruno Andrade and the ever-loveable
Adi Yussuf.
Our new friends
at the Leiston-Sudbury game (which Leiston won 3-2 after slipping to an early
0-2 deficit) are well aware that they are punching substantially above their
weight by playing in the Southern League Premier division. The crowd of 170 for a not-so-local derby
highlighted Leiston’s modest stature in the division. The new ground and other funding has come
from, if our new friends are to be believed, funds donated to the local
community by the company that runs the nuclear power station at nearby Sizewell
“B”. I suppose you might as well take any
monies donated from such a source and use them as quickly as you can. Should anything go…awry…at the
facility there probably won’t be much time to discuss the why’s-and-wherefores
of football funding or even boil an egg, although why it is assumed this would
be the go-to activity when the three minute warning sounds remains a mystery to
me. At least we know should anything
go….awry….at Weetabix all we’ll get is a slightly more burnt wheaty-smell
on the way back to our cars. Not instant
irradiation.
However, our
new friends were of no use whatsoever when it came to the BIG question about
Leiston FC. We took the plunge and asked
whether Leiston was pronounced “LEE-stun” or “LIE-stun”. They left us in eternal suspense by shrugging
the question off and saying that both pronunciations were acceptable and they weren’t
fussed either way. Or “EEYver” way,
presumably.
Supporters
Trust
Kettering Town (Poppies)
Supporters Trust, PO Box 6492, Kettering, NN16 0YT
enquiries@poppiestrust.co.uk
Facebook: Kettering Town 'Poppies' Supporters Trust;Twitter: @poppiestrust
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