Ground 4 - Westwood Road

Date: 7th October 2023

Match: St Ives Town vs Kettering Town

Competition: FA Trophy - 3rd Qualifying Round

Price: £11

With Cambridge not playing till Monday - thank you very much Sky Sports!!!. It means I had a free Saturday. After consulting my Futbology app (Must have app for any ground hoppers) I decided to go to St.Ives. 

Getting to St.Ives is rather simple. Just hope on the guided bus from Cambridge and away you go.

After arriving at St.Ives I had a look around. It looked like they had a farmers market on in the high street.

St Ives farmers market.

After a little nose around I decided to find somewhere to get some grub. The spoons was rammed, so I decided to go the White Hart instead. There I had steak burger and a pint of Inches cider. The food was very nice, the chips were nice and fluffy.

After being refreshed. I had a little look around the town center

I then made my way to the football ground, about  a 10-15 minute walk.  The ground is located next to a leisure center. 

                                                        The entrance to the ground 

The ground from the inside.

St.Ives was the much better side in the 1st half and was a real freat going forward. On loan Cambridge youngsters Dan Barton and Barndon Njoku looked good. Ives eventually went 1-0 up on 38th minutes. A swift break from a Kettering set piece saw a cross-come-shot from Jonny Edwards sail over the keeper hit the back post and into the goal. They got a 2nd goal right at the end of the 1st half when mix up between Kettering player Stohreer and keeper Billy Johnson resulted in an own goal. It was 2-0 at half time. As much as St Ives was good, Kettering looked like a side that had never played together before and was prehaps lucky they weren't further behind.

Celebrations after going 1-0 up. 

The second half started where the 1st left off. A fine counter attack saw Barton cross the ball for the captain Michael Richens slam home and put St Ives 3-0 and cruising - or so it seemed.

Celebrating going 3-0 up early in the 2nd half.

A few minutes after conceding the 3rd, Kettering pulled one goal back. Tyrone Lewthwaite with a smart run and finish. On 70 minutes Kettering managed to pull another back, Sam Bennett getting the goal. They couldn't find the equaliser which would have forced a penalty shoot out. Kettering went down to 10 men in injury time. Overall a very good entertaining game.

 

Man of the match : Dan Barton

Attendance: 351