Tag: Kettering Town

In the end, Kettering Town’s wretched season ended with a whimper rather than a bang. They finished the season with just thirty points, rooted to the bottom of the Blue Square Bet Premier, and under the same ownership with which they began the season – albeit under the apparent control of a new “acting chairman” – and with the future of the club hanging in the balance to the same extent as it has been for much of the last nine months. Yet the summer months can bring shark-infested waters for football clubs that have been flying by the seat of their pants throughout the season. Season ticket sales may provide some liquidity and many part-time clubs will at least have the relative breathing space of not having to pay any wages for a few weeks. Some financial liabilities, however, remain ongoing all year round and if season ticket sales prove sluggish, a critical source of income may be lost for another year. Much of this may be playing on the mind of George Rolls this week. Rolls is always careful with his words. As recently as the middle of February, he was telling the Dorset Echo that those concerned that he was set to leave Weymouth FC that “Unfortunately, some people make things up and put two and two together and don’t always come up with four”, the...

It has, as many of you will already be aware, been a long few months for the supporters of Kettering Town Football Club. During this period, their club has been uprooted to the former home of their defunct former local rivals, they have been promised the earth and have seen only the delivery of unpaid bills and an uphill battle to avoid relegation from the Blue Square Bet Premier. Amid the accusations, counter-accusations and recriminations that have accompanied this story, however, there has, perhaps, been no single, defining moment to draw our attention to their plight, and still less has there been a moment which can only make the casual observer stop and think, “Wow, I really did not see that coming.” Not any more. A message posted to on the website of the Northamptonshire Police earlier today set the clubs recent problems into the starkest possible terms. Due to the non-payment of policing bills so far this season, the police have been forced to declare that this weekends league match against AFC Telford United will have to be played behind closed doors. It is a situation that is, to the best recall of memory, unprecedented in the recent run of smaller clubs finding themselves in serious financial difficulty, and it can only be regarded as an absolute, utter humiliation for those that have managed to run this one...

A little gallows humour can go a long way. Kettering Town’s patchwork team played Gateshead in the Blue Square Premier in Tuesday night. Another crowd of under one thousand, another critical evening in a relegation battle that may yet prove to be highly important should the club somehow scrape through its current woes. The team managed to pull itself out of its recent torpor and win the match by two goals to one, but if this match is to be remembered for anything, it is likely that it will be for something quite unprecedented in the history of British football. Regardless of individual performances on the pitch, the only serious contender for any Man Of The Match award going could only be the controller of the electronic scoreboard at Nene Park, who made his feelings over the clubs recent mismanagement perfectly clear with a very personal message for the clubs chairman, Imraan Ladak, followed with a twist on the theme of a song that has become a crowd favourite in recent years. It may be the first time that “You’re Getting Sacked In The Morning” has ever been expressed in the first person. Such frustration is understandable considering recent events, and is a further sign the extent to which the rapid decline of this club has had the effect of radicalising the support base. Further protests are expected at...