With Adrian Foster out on a one match suspension, Jason Eaton got a rare Conference start. Meanwhile, David Piper returned from his flu illness, conveniently ousting Tony Pounder at right-back, who was otherwise engaged at the birth of his first child. Paul Tisdale was deemed fit, but was restricted to bench warming, whilst he was joined by the promotion of James Bent and Anthony Tonkin from the reserves following their impressive showing at the midweek friendly at Tiverton. This meant no return for Chris Sparks, who played his second consecutive Reserves Match.

Yeovil started the game with a strong cross-field wind that was marginally in their favour. And initially at least, they made good use of the elements, as they immediately forced Kettering onto the back foot with a series of forward running play, and testing crosses.

It was from one of these crosses that Yeovil took the lead, with effectively their first shot on goal. With barely 80 seconds on the clock, a deep left wing cross from Glen Poole was only partially cleared by the Kettering defence, and Rob COUSINS took full advantage as he unleashed a fierce volley from 15 yards. On his 200th appearance for Yeovil Town, Cousins had just doubled his goal tally for the Glovers with a very sweet shot that was buried inside Poppies keeper Adam Sollitt's right hand post.

In all honesty, bar the opening goal, this was a forgettable half. Carl Shutt shot the ball out of the ground after 18 minutes with the kind of shot that would have been more suitable for the oval-shaped game. Then Cousins tried a second drive that this time was hooked by the wind in the direction of the corner flag.

Match official Steve Chittenden, who was last seen dealing with a Yeovil match at Gander Green Lane in November 1999, was a late replacement for Mr Hegley, and he seemed to be very much pulled in by histrionics from Kettering supporters and players as they demanded that cards be shown for nearly every Yeovil indiscretion, whilst howling abuse at every decision given in the Glovers' favour. This meant that Dean Chandler was the first name to land in the book, despite his 'offence' having more to do with a succession of minor fouls, rather than anything particularly warranting a booking.

Warren Patmore joined him three minutes later when he barged into Craig Norman who was attempting to shield the ball out of play, but then Norman joined him in the book 20 seconds later when he committed an innocuous tackle on Ben Smith. With the weather conditions worsening, it looked like this was going to be a stormy game in more than one sense of the word.

Norman was at the centre of the action minutes later, when he seemed to be caught by Cousins' outstretched boot. With the referee allowing play to go on, Kettering were incensed when despite them having a clear advantage, he blew up to allow Norman to receive treatment, with the result being a drop ball that was blasted out of danger back to Sollitt in the Kettering goal.

Despite Kettering's general territorial pressure, helped by Yeovil's tendency to over-hit their passes in the wind, it took 41 minutes before their first real chance of the game. Dale Watkins broke through, and with a static Yeovil back line screaming for the off side flag, Tony Pennock brought off a great block, and from the resulting corner Colin Vowden headed over the bar.

Like the first 45 minutes, things started quietly, but once again, Yeovil were the benefactors, as Kettering's minds still seemed to be back in the dressing room. Warren Patmore had his shot saved well by Sollitt, but from Glen Poole's resulting corner, both Terry Skiverton and Warren Patmore were left alone, unmarked on the penalty spot. It looked like one would get in the other's way, but it was Terry SKIVERTON who got his head on the ball, and his placed downward header was goalbound all the way, for a 2-0 lead. With the Yeovil fans heading en masse to the shelter of the Kettering main stand, many will have missed the goal, although few will have missed Skiverton's celebrations.

The Poppies seemed to let their heads go down, as even the vociferous crowd got off the referee's back, and Yeovil bagan to dominate the game. Ben Smith had a great chance to completely seal the game, when in a goalmouth scramble, Sollitt lay committed on the floor, but Smith couldn't find enough room to get an on target shot.

Around the hour mark, Phil Brown replaced Gary Setchell in the Kettering midfield, and Brown seemed to provide the spark that gradually brought the home side back into the game. Terry Skiverton had to be alert to head clear, close to his own line, as the wind took a nasty turn for the worse, and the rain began to pour down in torrents.

The worsening pitch helped the home side with 72 minutes gone, as a low cross from Dale Watkins evaded the Yeovil back line, allowing Phil BROWN time to half volley home from 15 yards to put Kettering right back in the game.

Like Yeovil's last two games, the goal back seemed to produce psychological damage, as Yeovil temporarily lost their composure, and with puddles now forming on the pitch, and the game becoming a lottery, Kevan Brown was rightly booked when he brought down Watkins wide on the Kettering left wing, as Brown produced a new definition to the term 'sliding tackle'.

Yeovil weren't entirely finished yet, as Jason Eaton charged down a Kettering defender's clearance and sprinted down the right wing. He had options available in Ben Smith on the far post, but with the Poppies defence failing to put in any tackles, Eaton went all the way, but his shot skewed wide.

Thereafter, Yeovil found themselves in the kind of backs-against-the-wall performance only last seen at Whaddon Road, Cheltenham last April. Tony Pennock ultimately turned from an innocent bystander into the hero of the day as he packed more work into the final five minutes than he had been called on to do in the first 85 of the game.

The most astonishing save of them all came from a Matt Fisher header, where Pennock, doing a near back-flip in mid-air, somehow managed to lift the ball over the bar, for what was, without wanting to overuse an overused phrase, a 'World Class' save. From the resulting corner, David Piper was forced to clear the ball off the line, as the pressure increased with the wind, rain and mud.

The first half was a non-event; it was so scrappy, whereas the second half was very entertaining, I suppose if you were a neutral. The pitch was very dead until the rain came down, and then everything livened up. The ball began zipping about and the game became faster.

Both teams struggled with the pitch in the first half. But luckily we had one moment of inspiration with a shot that put us 1-0 up. Really that was a 0-0 first half but we got that one great shot. When you don't score goals that much, obviously a goal like that can mean an awful lot.

The second half was full of action. We scored a second then we had some great chances to go 3-0 up. Jason Eaton and Warren hit ones just wide of the post then Ben Smith could have put Jason in but decided to go on his own. But I thought Ben worked very hard. Jason Eaton had a great game today as well in very hard conditions.

It was a magnificent win. We just had to keep battling for our win. Only one other team has done that this season - Dover Athletic - we're the second team out of fourteen to win here, which shows what formidable opponents they are here. They were second in the league last season. I'm sure they will be disappointed in what they have achieved so far this season but they showed in that last 20 minutes what they are capable of.

I know that we are by no means the finished article, but what they have done all season, except for that Forest Green game, is to battle. I've got no complaints about attitude and commitment since I took over. People say about Dover, but there we were great for the first 25 minutes, but then collapsed when they went 2-0 up. We made a substitution and it didn't work.

COMMENTS

MATCH RATING - 7.5
Performance 7.4
Entertainment 7.6