Kettering Town 3 Wisbech Town 0

WISBECH Town boss Steve Appleby felt his side missed a golden opportunity to get past Kettering in the FA Cup by not putting them away on Saturday at the Fenland Stadium.

Appleby was speaking after his side slumped to a 3-0 defeat in Tuesday night’s replay at Nene Park, with goals from David Mayo and a Warren Byerley brace booking the Poppies spot in the second qualifying round where they will play Boston United.

Despite conceding that Kettering deserved to go through on the strength of their performance in the replay, the Wisbech boss felt his side shouldn’t have let them escape with a draw from Saturday’s tie.

He said: “I always thought that we could go to Kettering and win but when we look back on this we will see it was a missed opportunity for us at home.

“We had a number of good chances that we didn’t take and Kettering showed that they had another level on Tuesday by taking the chances that they created, though again we could and should have come away with goals.”

A 19th minute strike from Mayo handed Kettering the lead against the Fenman, who were without talismanic defender Paul Cousins, ruled out with a calf strain.

Ten minutes later and Wisbech were given a mountain to climb when the referee awarded a penalty, which Appleby described as “soft”, allowing them to go 2-0 up as Byerley slotted past Lea Jordan.

Dubi Ogbonna and Matt Lunn both had efforts well saved by the Kettering keeper as Wisbech opened up after the break but, in the search for a way back into the game, they were left increasingly exposed in defence.

The match was finally put beyond them in the 70th minute as a Ryan Hervel corner was poked home at close quarters by Byerley for his second of the night.

Wisbech will have to regroup again as they travel to Kirkley and Pakefield in the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division on Saturday.