Kettering Town have confirmed the departure of first-team manager Liam McDonald, who has left the Poppies by mutual consent just a week before the club's Southern League Premier Central campaign gets underway.
In a short statement, the club said it had accepted McDonald's request to step down with immediate effect, thanking him for his commitment and hard work during his time at Latimer Park. Assistants Nick Green and David Bridgewater have been placed in interim charge of first-team affairs as the club looks to appoint a permanent successor before the opening fixture at home to Alvechurch.
The timing will raise eyebrows among supporters, coming as it does with pre-season all but complete and the start of the campaign just days away. McDonald had arrived with genuine pedigree, having guided Rushall Olympic into the National League set-up back in 2023, and was tasked with restoring a sense of momentum to a club that has cycled through managers at a striking rate in recent seasons. He replaced Simon Hollyhead, who himself lasted only four months before resigning, and inherited a job that had previously been held by Richard Lavery - the man who led Kettering to an FA Cup first-round win over Northampton Town before missing out on promotion via the play-offs.
Under owner George Akhtar, who has made no secret of his ambition to eventually see Kettering back in the Football League, patience with underperforming regimes has understandably been thin. That McDonald's exit comes by his own request rather than the club's hand marks a slight departure from the pattern, though the net effect for supporters is much the same - another summer, another change in the dugout, another period of uncertainty heading into a new campaign.
Green and Bridgewater will take first-team affairs into their own hands for what the club has called an important and exciting season, with the Poppies keen for fans to rally around the group regardless of who's technically in the hot seat. Kettering's history over the past decade has been one of fluctuating fortunes, big crowds and boardroom volatility in roughly equal measure, and the pressure to appoint the right permanent replacement quickly will be considerable given the standing start now facing whoever takes the reins. For now, all eyes turn to Alvechurch's visit to Latimer Park next Saturday - Kettering's first competitive fixture of the season, and the first real test of how much disruption this late change in the dugout will cause.
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