As the decade that has finally acquired a name - the Noughties - prepares to give way to another ten years with no working title whatsoever (the Teens sounds like an early 60s band with matching suits who managed a solitary hit), it's time to come over all retrospective and look back at what the past decade has meant for KTFC.
New Year's Day 2000, widely held to be the start of the new millennium by all but determined pedants like me, who irritated everyone by insisting the real event was a year later, saw over 2,500 flock to Rockingham Road to see what was undoubtedly a dull match against Nuneaton because they always were. The honour of notching our first goal of the new decade fell to Leroy Chambers, and if you can recall anything about him, well done.
What looked like being just another slow death of a season was unexpectedly rescued by an event almost as rare as a new millennium - a run in the Trophy. It was ironic that we should finally return to Wembley with a distinctly average team, and it is doubtful that the low key occasion itself spawned even a fraction of the generation of Poppies fans who claim Wembley 79 as their first match. However the next day featured the obligatory opentop bus ride around Kettering, one of several during the decade and all rather too long for the thin numbers that lined the route. I recall Sam Banya on the top deck beaming royally like he'd personally won us the cup with a brilliant hat trick. Well in his own way he became a legend, and if only the technology was around then his glaring miss against Rothwell would be a Youtube classic.
Two years later the same bus was on duty again but only to mark our return to the same level after a season in the Southern Prem that was enough to turn your hair grey. Not many teams lose four in a row and still end up champions and even fewer do so after contriving to be beaten by the mighty Newport IOW in the run in. But somehow we pipped Tamworth by a tiny margin thanks to the Folkestone keeper saving a penalty whilst we won at Tiverton, and were still celebrating on their pitch long after the match.
The following season, in the words of Captain Blackadder, began badly, fell away a bit in the middle, and the less said about the end the better. Down we went again, this time to the alien surrounds of the Ryman Premier aka the old Isthmian League. Which meant a succession of home defeats to tiny outfits from Essex before a late rally under Kevin Wilson enabled us to make the cut for the new north and south feeders to the Conference, or as it was now known, the Conference Premier.
Our first season in the Nationwide North was a relative success: top of the table for a while and defeat in the playoffs. At least it felt like we had bottomed out and were looking upwards. Then in October 2005 Peter Mallinger sold the club to Imraan Ladak and immediately we were national news. Not solely for that reason - Imraan had thoughtfully scoured the football world for a suitable person to entrust with team affairs and come up with... Paul Gascoigne (belch). No club in the sixth tier of English football has ever enjoyed a higher profile than we did in those brief 39 days between Gazza meeting the gumbies on Football Focus and being fired after 1-3 vs Barrow.
KW was swiftly reinstated but to no avail and by the end of the campaign IL had fed him to the crocodiles too, and the boys in red were taking on a new look with exotically named recruits that tested Pete Simcoe's matchday announcements to the limit. Half the team had French names and so did the manager - surely this heralded an era of unbroken success? Well - no. What Morell Maison lacked in expertise he didn't quite make up for in quotability. Shortly after we topped the table in March he poked Droylsden in the chest and said "catch us if you can!". Noting we were only a couple of points ahead, they said "ok!" and did. Imraan fired Morell with two games to go, appointed Westley to get us up through the playoffs, he didn't.
But from this low came the new dawn of Mark Cooper. First season: champions by 17 points (that bus again). Second season: FA Cup 4th Round. Third season: second in the league, Cup 2nd Round er zzzzp.
Six weeks later, Cooper off to Peterborough, squad in disarray, chairman again making headlines for all the wrong reasons, dropping down the table, can't buy a goal... Perhaps fitting that at the end of the Noughties, that's what we score.
No comments:
Post a Comment