Kettering hoping to end 73-day wait for home game

Non-league Kettering Town are hoping to finally play their first home game of 2026 on Tuesday evening following a series of postponements caused by a waterlogged pitch.

They are due to take on Stratford Town, 73 days after their previous match at Latimer Park on 20 December - a 3-0 win over Royston Town.

The Poppies have 13 Southern League Premier Central games left this season and because of the backlog, 10 of them will be at home.

"We've got a very congested fixture list coming up due to all the home games being called off," striker Eddie Panter told BBC Radio Northampton's Non-League Scene.

He joined Kettering from Bedford Town at the end of November, but has only played three home matches because of bad weather.

"It's crazy. We're good at home, so hopefully the game [against Stratford] will be on. We get a few through the door and we put on a good performance for everybody.

"Usually you play a max two away games and then you're back in front of your own supporters, so it's definitely been a weird time but we've done really well."

Kettering reached the play-off final last season before losing to AFC Telford, but are currently 12th in the table, 10 points below the top five, following Saturday's 1-1 draw at Stourbridge.

But they have up to four games in hand on their rivals.

Speaking following the match with Stourbridge, manager Liam McDonald said: "Our fans are brilliant, and have been at every game they've come to away from home of late, but we need to get back home, get a big crowd and take the game to Stratford on Tuesday.

"I've asked them to be on this journey with us. It's going to be difficult - probably not what they were used to last season - but stick with the lads and see where the season ends.

"If we win a certain amount of home games, we're going to give ourselves that little bit of hope. They understand we've got a lot to do but going to Bishop's Stortford and winning, going to Needham [Market] and winning, going to St Ives and winning, coming here [to Stourbridge] and drawing is a good start."

The club have invested in new pitch covers and are hopeful the Stratford game will go ahead as planned - but they are considering the possibility of a switch to an artificial surface going forward.

Chairman George Akhtar said: "The sheer volume of water this year has been incredible. We hope we've done the right thing, fingers crossed.

"Before I bought the club I was told there was one season when we had nine games called off - this is now seven postponements which is financially very difficult.

"There are teams in leagues above us who are playing on 4G [pitches] so who are we to turn our nose up at it? It's definitely something we're exploring."

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