Matlock arrived at Kettering hoping to put the memories of a poor pre-season behind them. The squad may have been missing one or two familiar faces but having done the double over their opponents last season a much closer game was anticipated. Matlock actually started brightly and from the early exchanges there was little to choose between the two sides. Kettering missed an early penalty kick but took the lead with another shortly after. Matlock then looked to be in for a certain score when Dan Hooton put George Whittaker away down the wing but he was stopped just short of the line by a fine cover tackle. At this point the game changed dramatically for Matlock. On ten minutes flyhalf James Young had to leave the field with a groin strain bringing Tom Hooton off the bench. Minutes later Alex Powell also had to leave the field with a pulled hamstring and while Matlock underwent a period of reorganisation Kettering took advantage to cross for their first try. Matlock tried to respond in their usual fashion but forcing the game from too deep brings its own problems, particularly when it clearly isn’t your day, and the failure to retain possession on a number of occasions coupled with some rather lacklustre and uncharacteristic defending on a number of occasions gifted the home side with several further scores. To add insult to injury Matlock also had to play 10 minutes with fourteen men when Whittaker was unlucky to be sin-binned. The pattern continued throughout the remainder of the match although there was a good twenty minute period towards the end of the match when the Matlock defence was solid repelling anything that Kettering could throw at them and their ball retention was also saw improvement. In truth the Matlock back line to a man defended well throughout the match and were not breached from normal set plays with most of Kettering’s breaks having come from turnover ball and every bounce and decision seeming to go their way. It was a difficult game to single out specific performers but Tom Hooton stood up well in the unfamiliar flyhalf berth, Nick Coombes again had to drop into the back-line which meant we lost his power and pace off the back row. Charlie Jackson had a fine game at hooker and back row and James Noble put in another fine display. Adam Twyford also worked tirelessly throughout the game.
There is much work to do over the coming days and weeks ahead not least to restore much needed pride and self-belief. It is vitally important that the squad lets this one go, as we all know we are capable of turning this around. It’s now time to re-group as a squad, work hard on the areas which failed and come back stronger than ever.