Kettering Town 2 Eastwood Town 1
FA Cup 3rd Round Proper
Saturday 3rd January 2009
Rockingham Road
Kettering Town's reward for winning this all non-league 3rd Round FA Cup tie is another home draw but this time against Premiership opponents. Fulham will make the trip north for the 4th Round cup tie at the end of January.
Poppies chairman Imraan Ladak will be over the moon with the £75,000 prize money for getting through the 3rd round stage. Ladak is desperate for Kettering to build themselves a new ground as it is reported they have to pay 60% of all gate reciepts to the current owner of the club's Rockingham Road ground.
Kettering had spent £4,500 on swaddling the Rockingham Road pitch under a massive duvet to protect it from the sub-zero temperatures. The result was a surface in pristine condition, however the players never really took advantage - this certainly wasn't a game for the football purists. Most of the 5,090 inside the ground won't be complaining about the quality of the football however!
The 5,090 packed into Rockingham Road saw Kettering dominate the majority of the game. The Poppies looked competely in control at half time even though they only had a Craig Westcarr strike after 24 minutes to show for their efforts. When Gareth Seddon added an excellent second on 58 minutes a place in the 4th round proper looked a certainty.
However Eastwood Town, the lowest ranked side left in the FA Cup, had other ideas and almost immediately struck back. Paul Robinson taking advantage of some sloppy defending by the Kettering back four. The final half an hour of the game saw Eastwood push for the equaliser but Kettering held on and now get to play a Premiership side in the last 32.
Clive
