Morell Maison's last role in football came last season with doomed Chester

Kettering Town caretaker-manager Morell Maison has returned to the club urging his players to show "character" and remedy a poor start to the season.

Maison has resumed control at the Blue Square Bet Premier outfit following this week's departure of Lee Harper.

But Kettering have managed only one win in 10 starts, stand 22nd in the league and lost 3-0 at Cambridge in Maison's first match back in charge in midweek.

"Character is now the big word here," Maison told BBC Radio Northampton.

"Do the players have the character to get the club back to the point it was at last season and the season before?

"They'll answer that question in the not-too-distant future.

"Nobody likes losing and, over the last two or three years, a lot of these players have enjoyed great success at Kettering. They've really taken the club to another level.

"So to be where they are now, 10 games into this season, no-one's happy."

Maison's last role in the game was an ill-fated one last season at doomed Chester, with whom he lost every game in a two-month reign as director of football.

But he was not unsuccessful in his previous 14-month stint at Kettering, prompting Poppies chairman Imraan Ladak to summon his return.

After starting his career in football as a Sunday league manager, Maison then held down posts with Buckingham Town and Milton Keynes City before coming to the fore when taking over at Kettering in February 2006 - in the wake of Paul Gascoigne's short tenure at Rockingham Road.

But, despite lifting the Poppies to second in the Conference North table on the back of a run of seven wins in eight games, Maison was sacked in April 2007.

Kettering travel to fellow strugglers Forest Green on Saturday.

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