A strong 15 man team made the long trip over to Stourport to try to rebuild from last weeks poor result.
Rob, our coach, fed us all chocolate before the game and then told us that he wanted us to just go out and enjoy ourselves so we could go into the Christmas break happy as a team.
This relaxed the team and seemed to put us all in a good frame of mind to work hard and help each other out in this last game before Christmas.
In the first half Kettering had all the play and camped ourselves in Stourport's defensive 25 for the majority. We were outplaying our opposition in skill and passing and Charlie Fowle was very unlucky to not put Kettering ahead as a shot rebounded to her to be flicked over the keeper but the ball went narrowly wide.
Great performances in defence by Gracie Gault, Beth Winfield, Stacy Hall and Michelle Tanser meant that Kettering were first to the ball and passes were being cut out across the pitch. Tireless work by Laura Beacon, Imogen Smith and Cath Irvin in the centre of the pitch meant passes were strung together well and defensively we did not give Stourport a moment free on the ball.
Down the wings Sophie Richardson, Emma Storey, Meg Forader and Emma Findlay made some excellent runs to help us get the ball down the pitch and keep it there. Kettering started to get frustrated and eventually Meg Forader was very harshly green carded for a seemingly innocuous comment. Unfortunately Stourport drew first blood as, totally against the run of play, a quick and skilful Stourport forward pounced on our defence who were slightly out of position and ran the ball almost the whole way into the goal. We went into the half time break feeling positive for a good first half performance and confident that we could still get something from this game.
The second half started much the same as the first had and Kettering applied all the pressure onto the home team. One of these passes of play led to Laura Beacon winning a free hit on the edge of the D. Running the ball 5 yards and then making an attempt to hit the ball to the far post where Charlie Fowle was waiting, didn't quite go to plan as the ball was topped and went bouncing into the D. Luckily Fowle was sharper than the 2 defenders the ball went through, being the only one able to stop it and coolly she slotted it away to bring the score deservedly level.
As the game went on Kettering pushed forward to try to get the winner as Liz Metcalfe and Harriet Goswell put in an immense amount of effort to make those runs out wide to receive the ball and attack the Stourport D. Unfortunately as in previous games Kettering did start to leave some gaps across the pitch and the Stourport attack took advantage to apply pressure as Kettering's mids found themselves deeper then they should have been. However some sterling work in defence and some good saves by Nik Baker in goal meant Stourport could not take advantage.
The game ended 1-1, and although Kettering felt they could have got the win, they were glad of a good performance and a point away from home.