Kettering Town Supporters Volunteer to Ready Stadium for Televised FA Cup Match

Dedicated supporters of Kettering Town are actively engaged in readying their 3,000-capacity stadium for the upcoming televised FA Cup match scheduled for next month. This effort follows the team’s triumphant first-round victory, where the Poppies defeated local rivals Northampton Town of League One, securing a 2-1 win against the Cobblers at Sixfields. The club’s Latimer Park venue is set to host their next opponents, League Two’s Doncaster Rovers, and will be broadcast to a national audience. Volunteers shared with the BBC their activities as the facility undergoes preparations for the game. Roger Rose, a resident of Burton Latimer, the location of Kettering’s stadium, is replacing an existing “chicken wire” fence with a tidier plastic mesh. He stated, “Because we’re fans and we come here every week, we see the little things that annoy us and will annoy other people, so we get on and get it done.” The 63-year-old, a former NHS technician, expressed his enjoyment of the “camaraderie” among the volunteers. He recounted, “Last week, we were fixing a tap in the toilets in the clubhouse.” Rose added, “You look at what the improvements on the ground are… it’s so much better now.” He also noted, “Even simple things which most people just pass by and not even notice have been changed.” Tony Heath commented that “there’s a lot of work going on in the ground” in anticipation of Doncaster’s visit on 1 December. He joins other volunteers at the club every Thursday, where he has been tending to the hedges by “putting some shape back” and pruning trees. Heath remarked, “It’s all for a good cause, for our beloved club.” He further stated, “I’m one of them absurd folk that has supported Kettering for a long, long time.” He concluded, “It’s a very proud club and it’s something we can do to support the club.” He also observed that “[The FA Cup] is gripping the town now.” Mike Thurland mentioned that he has been a supporter of the Poppies for “probably 60 years now – and it’s a good place to be at this point in time.” He and his wife are frequently assigned the job of “painting fences or anything that needs painting.” Given the upcoming televised match, the 68-year-old noted that he has had to “paint the club shop – which is a 40ft (12m) container – twice.” Mike stated, “We’re a good group here and we all get on.” He added, “We all have a laugh and a joke, often at each other’s expense, but it’s a really good atmosphere.” Thurland also observed, “Since we started on this cup run, we have more and more people who’ve become interested and are willing to come along and help.” He concluded, “The more that come, the better it makes the place look.” Ian Hopewell, who serves as both the groundsman and club secretary, commended the volunteers, stating they have “done a remarkable job.” He also noted that the club has experienced a rise in attendance, which he described as “great,” attributing this to their progress in the FA Cup. Hopewell explained, “These are the foundations of a football club and the better the facilities are when the bigger crowds do come.” He further emphasized, “It’s more of a match day experience for them and you can’t put a value to that.”