The club was established in 1872 under the name Kettering Football Club. a season which also saw them beat two
Football League clubs in the
FA Cup; a 2–1 win over
Loughborough in the third qualifying round was followed by a 2–1 win at
Leicester Fosse in the fourth qualifying round before they lost 2–1 at
Newton Heath in the first round. After winning the Midland League again in 1899–1900, Instead, the club joined Division One of the
Southern League. In the
1900–01 FA Cup they reached the second round, beating Football League opponents
Burton Swifts and
Chesterfield before losing 5–0 at
Middlesbrough. They won the league at the first attempt and were runners-up in the next three seasons. In 1909 the club rejoined the Southern League, playing in Division Two B, but also continued to enter the first team into the Northamptonshire League for another season; they went on to finish the 1909–10 season as runners-up in both leagues. They played in the Alliance until returning to the Southern League in 1923, where they were placed in the Eastern Division. They were runners-up in the Eastern Division in
1924–25, and after finishing fourth in
1926–27 the club applied for Football League membership again, receiving only one vote. They were Eastern Division champions the
following season and went on to win the overall Southern League championship, beating
Bristol City Reserves 5–0 in a play-off. Another attempt at Football League membership saw them receive only three votes. After retaining the Eastern Division title in
1928–29 the club lost the championship play-off 4–2 to
Plymouth Argyle Reserves. In the subsequent Football League elections they received only one vote. However, after a single season the club dropped back into the Northamptonshire League. The club rejoined the Northamptonshire League, now named the
United Counties League, in 1935 and were runners-up in their first season back in the league. Despite only finishing eighth the
following season the club received one vote in the Football League elections, In 1958 the Southern League was restructured, with Kettering placed in the North West Division. They were North West Division runners-up in
1958–59, earning a place in the Premier Division as the league was restructured again in 1959. However, they finished bottom of the Premier Division the
following season and were relegated to Division One. The following season saw them receive 16 votes, finishing as the highest-ranked non-League club and only five votes behind Fourth Division
Workington. After its use in the Southern League Premier Division match against
Bath City on 24 January 1976 the FA demanded that the club remove the sponsor's logo threatening a fine of £1000, and were not impressed when Dougan initially attempted to circumvent the FA's demands by shortening the branding 'Kettering Tyres' to simply 'Kettering T', claiming the T stood for "Town". The logo was removed, though in June 1977 the FA decreed that a 2.5 square inch logo would be permitted in the future provided it was not "detrimental to the image of the game". In 1979 the club were founder members of the
Alliance Premier League, a single national division at the top of the non-League pyramid. They were runners-up in
1980–81 and again in
1988–89, a season which saw them reach the fourth round of the
FA Cup; after beating Dartford in the first round, they defeated Football League opposition Bristol Rovers in the second round and
Halifax Town in the third, before losing 2–1 at First Division
Charlton Athletic in the fourth round. The season saw them
finish second in the league, going on to beat
Harborough Town on penalties in the play-off semi-finals before losing 4–2 to
AFC Telford United in the final.
Reserve team Kettering reserves joined the
Leicestershire Senior League in 1894, where they played for two seasons before joining Division One of the Northamptonshire League in 1896, winning it at the first attempt. They won the league again the following season, but were replaced by first team in 1904 and dropped into Division Two. In 1945 they rejoined the Leicestershire Senior League, while still playing in the United Counties League. They left the United Counties League in 1960 and the Central Alliance in 1961, when they rejoined the United Counties League. In 1966 the reserves returned to the United Counties League. ==Ground==