Back To Basics
Anstey Nomads 1-0 Kettering Town (Southern League Central Division)
I keep saying I’m not coming back but here I am, just a couple of weeks since my last visit, returning to a place where for the life of my I can never find a decent pew.
Word is that a few days after my last attendance for the cup match verses Macclesfield last month, Anstey announced that they would be moving home. Not down to me and my moans, I don’t think? But more the neighbours getting irate? The club agreeing a partnership with De Montfort University in Leicester to use their modern Beaumont Park Sports Facility, a bigger, better, newer place, with parking, and lights that work, probably.
What it means is that this quaint and crumbling rustic old home on the Cropston Road will be no more for ‘senior’ non-league football, perhaps it’ll be used for youth team footy still but the elder’s team will move to pastures new, opposite side of the A46 and unfortunately outside the town of Anstey completely.
Not sure how I feel about it? I do quite like the place, if it could just have had a little re-organising and consideration, but I get that the locals don’t want hundreds of cars here, as I decide to plonk mine again (inconsiderably) outside someone’s semi-detached home tonight.
Anstey hit five at the weekend at Halesowen, they scored all of them by half time and although they conceded three in the second half, they took all three points and are ninth in the table a point below the playoff places ahead of this one.
Kettering I have been meaning (and trying) to see for bloody years. My first viewing of the Poppies tonight, they are fourth in the division five points above Anstey and seven behind league leaders Real Bedford. Off the back of a couple of league wins their last game ended in a 2-1 home win over Redditch United, Blaine Rowe and Eddie Panter with the goals.
The Venue
It’s a dark, cold, chilly, misty one tonight, driving down the A46 in thick fog I was doubtful about this getting the go ahead but it’s all clear in North Leicester, I’m walking through the gates in my Green Bay Packers Hat as someone shows me their Miami Dolphins sweater. “Do you follow NFL” he says. “Not as much as I used to” is my reply.
Much less busy than the last time I was here in the FA Cup, thankfully, I’m easy to get a seat on the single file row of them under the old tin stand that runs half the length of one side of the pitch.
Players are warming up against the barriers right in front of me as Anstey skipper Jordan Annable says ‘hello’. He’s been going through some vigorous stretches alone “A bit stiff tonight?” I ask him. “When you get near 30 it all goes a bit stiff” is his reply.
There’s a few fireworks in the air with Diwali celebrated in these parts as much as Bonfire Night itself, maybe a few left overs to get rid of?
The pitch is getting towards its winters churning point, a bit of mud on the surface with moisture in the air, everything is quiet around here, the seated stands to the left half full, the opposite side has plenty standing near the clubhouse and down over the far side goal has an open end which is pitch black into the distance, the feel of step 9 or 10 football is one that is earthy, nostalgic, simple, real, it really feels as we’ve gone back to basics here.
The Game
The players walk out and shake hands to hardly any applause, in fact there’s no noise at all, no tannoy, as the two sets of teams now circle around the half way for what I presume is a minutes silence for Remembrance Day tomorrow? A referees whistle is the only instruction we get on the sidelines to begin our stand.
Play underway it soon livens up from the quiet pre-match to a feisty full bodied game of football that like the ground it’s played at is basic as it comes, front to back, win your duals, don’t twat about with it.
It’s intense, high bloodied and thirsty as the football at a frantic level gets kicked around like a can in a school playground, Kettering in yellow have a chance when a ball over the top is misjudged by the big centre half Omoregbee, Panter through on goal slashes whilst under pressure and the ball sails high wide and not so handsome, probably now bouncing somewhere along the Cropston Road.
Other than that error Anstey are good value, they are a good team here, a tough place to come it feels, a slightly sloped muddy pitch at a soulless sparsely spectated home where the lights are dim, the rain is thin, I can imagine not many fancy it when coming here, but in fairness Kettering are up for it tonight, both sides are giving it as much as they have got.
The Score
It’s all tight and ugly first twenty before a slick move down the left has Bestwick chip to the back post where Harvey Kirby-Moore is all alone, the big striker heading down and in to give his side the lead, the Kettering coaching staff hands on their heads begin to shout orders from the dugouts to remotivate their team.
In truth not much else happens of any quality, the battle is between the boot, the ball, the pitch, and trying to release it all before being clattered, a couple of yellows are dished out which almost lead to a nasty turn in the tempo, the Referee fortunately has things under control but he perhaps misses a big one in the second half, Eddie Panter races through on goal again, he gets fouled by Omoregbee, I think it’s a good but solid old fashioned tackle where he leaves a bit on the man, the Referee however gives the free kick, and books the big centre half, in awarding the foul he should perhaps have reached for red as he was the last defender when diving in.
That leads to more hands on heads from the management staff who can’t believe the Referee not showing Omoregbee the door, Kettering give the game a real push but Price in the Anstey goal is hardly forced into any serious action, at the other end there’s the odd chance to break on the counter attack but there’s more offsides than opportunities. It’s a good old fashioned tussle between two good honest sets who go at it hammer and tongue, the difference is the goal that Anstey score and perhaps a bit of luck in a Refereeing decision that could have gone either way, but after all said and done, the better side, probably, won.
The Stars
It wasn’t a night for tippy tappy technical stuff, more showing your grit and determination to dig in and fight, Jonty Bouch in Anstey’s midfield did that better than anyone, he looks (and sounds) like he should be a rugby union centre with his thick set and blonde hair, he smashed over Lewis Coyle late on to drive through on goal and shoot an effort which was cleared off the line, a big powerful midfielder who’s willing to put his foot in, decent on the ball too.
Likewise Henry Bestwick and the brilliant Tendai Chitiza who grafted in the centre of the park with plenty of strength and substance, they probably won the midfield dual on the night but it was a good contest where the likes of Jack Newell, Peter Abimbola and Emmanuel Maja gave as good as they got.
Anstey defensively are a solid outfit, two good no-nonsense full backs in Hartmann and Wauchope I like the pairing of Omoregbee and Annable which offers size and experience at centre half, in attack they look a threat from out wide, not the best night for Oscar Tonge (who is a talented boy) and Corey Grantham (who usually gets in on the goals) but Harvey Kirby-Moore did well and so did Kevin Bastos and the lively Fletcher Poole from the bench.
As for Kettering, a lot to like, they were similar in set up to Anstey (4-3-3) with decent full backs and a big centre half in Harvey Peters who I like the look of. They didn’t seem to have as much in attack tonight, but young Eddie Panter is a fox in the box that might have been well contained, on another night he could have been the difference in who got the three points.
The Verdict
Cropston Road is a venue that is starting to grow on me. The seating isn’t ideal, but there’s a stripping back of football at this place that takes me to simpler times, park life, and I quite like that, I’m starting to feel it’ll be a real shame should Anstey leave.
They’ll likely end up playing on a caged 4g out of town that doesn’t suit their style, and if so I doubt they can win matches like this, tonight, in the way they did, away from a muddy, bobbly badly lit home where anybody turning up on first viewing would think to themselves ‘this is a shithole’.
Moving up to seventh, Anstey now two points below the Poppies have a real outsiders shot at a playoff place this season, Kettering have been hovering around the promotion places for a couple of years now, whilst tonight wasn’t their night, they have the backing and the squad depth certainly to do well at the level above, whilst Anstey have the heart and character, I just hope that isn’t ripped out when they do leave home for pastures new.
The Teams
Anstey Nomads: Harley Price, Elliot Hartmann, Darien Wauchope, Jordan Annable, Jesse Omoregbee (Rubyn Gill 78), Jonty Bouch, Oscar Tonge, Henry Bestwick, Courey Grantham (Kevin Bastos 78), Tendai Chitiza (Fletcher Poole 82), Harvey Kirby-Moore.
Kettering Town: Paul White, Blaine Rowe, Lewis Coyle, Jack Newell, Tom Leak, Harvey Peters, Eddie Panter, Peter Abimbola (Shaun Jeffers 80), Tai Fleming (Theo Alexandrou 69), Emmanuel Maja, Jaiden White.
7:45pm Kick Off. Tuesday 10th November 2026, Cropston Road, Anstey (att 517).
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