Kettering is the sort of place that, I imagine, sort of defines the upper levels of non-league football. I was walking through the town centre trying to find Rockingham Road, having forgotten the way since that fateful FA Cup match a few years ago, and there was literally no one around. It was like a ghost town. Happily, after aimlessly wandering up a big hill, the Poppies' appeared in the middle of what appeared to be some large shrubs. It's a very non-league ground and one that Kettering won't be playing at for much longer, with a move to Nene Park very much on the cards. In fact, demolition work appears to have already begun judging by the rubble that we had to navigate through to reach the seats in the corner of the main stand.
It was somewhat disappointing to find that it was effectively the Notts reserves that were turning out, against a side made up mostly of trialists for the hosts, with Kettering currently having just a handful of contracted players. That includes strikers Moses Ashikodi and JP Marna, however, and they looked awkward and difficult to deal with from the off. Liam Chilvers found this out early on, when he hopelessly misjudged a long ball before being outdone for pace by Ashikodi. Chilvers, frankly, hauled him to the ground inside the area, but the referee was miles away and didn't give anything. Ishmel Demontagnac was also causing some only problems of his own though and was hacked down on the right flank, picking himself up to whip the free kick narrowly wide of the far post from out wide.
A Jude Stirling long throw was almost fumbled into his own net by the Kettering 'keeper, but other than that it was the Poppies who had control of the first half. Marna was causing real problems for Notts and he was presented with two fine chances to open the scoring. Firstly, his tricky run and shot was halted by a fine block by Haydn Hollis, before Rob Burch decided to start messing around with the ball in his area, passing it straight to Marna who rattled an effort against the bar from twenty yards.
At half time, Notts tried to freshen things up in search of at least some sort of threatening foray into the Kettering half. Jahidi and Whiteley were sent on for Spicer and Demontagnac, whilst Liam Mitchell replaced Burch in goal. For Kettering, former Magpies Jamie Clapham and Tyrone Berry came off the bench. Notts started the half brightly and Whiteley forced the Kettering 'keeper into an early save with a fine run and low shot from 25 yards. Notts were looking to build with slow possession and this paid off when a good move saw the ball played down the left to Jon Harley, who crossed towards trialist Alex Wall. He initially headed away from goal, but the ball came back to him and his scuffed volley into the floor looped up and over the 'keeper before clipping the post and nestling in the net.
This gave Notts some more impetus and Wall could've doubled the lead, but lost his footing when clean through on goal. Berry fired just wide for Kettering whilst young Dixon forced a fine save from the Kettering 'keeper after a good run. Jerel Ifil nearly levelled late on, but found Mitchell in the way, helping to preserve a clean sheet and ensure a second pre-season victory for Notts.
Notts County - Burch (Mitchell), Stirling, Chilvers, Hollis, Harley, Ravenhill, Spicer (Whiteley), Dixon (Tempest), Demontagnac (Jahidi), Wall