22-09-17 – Preview – Harriers Vs Blyth Spartans

The Harriers and Blyth Spartans last clashed swords twenty years ago in the FA Cup and before that it was twenty five years ago in the FA Trophy. We have not met again since and this will be our first league meeting.

In the FA Cup game we exited the competition at theirs with our goal coming from the legendary Kim Casey. Blyth then went into the hat for the first round proper and met up with Blackpool at Bloomfield Road to end their participation in the contest. They did knock three goals past their higher level opponents but the Tangerines went one better with four. In the Trophy tie both of our goals came from Phil Mullen and we then went on to beat Dagenham FC in the next round only to lose 1-0 at Wycombe Wanderers in the quarter finals.

Now, following Spartans promotion last season, we take up our swords again.

Blyth have been going really well in their first season back after being relegated into the Northern Premier League five years earlier. They sit in fourth place at the moment with seven wins under their belt, four losses and no draws. They started the season off with two defeats against Alfreton Town  and York City but in their next two games they picked up wins against Tamworth and Gainsborough Trinity. Since the beginning of September they have gone on a winning streak in the league with four straight wins against AFC Telford Utd, FC Utd of Manchester, Boston Utd and Chorley but they did lose at home to Shaw Lane Aquaforce in the FA Cup last Saturday.

On the same day that Blyth were leaving the cup we were going through into the next round with a 4-2 win at Deeping Rangers. We never looked in real danger of losing the game but Deeping did rally after going 3-0 down to stage a come back twice but we finally ran out winners and the chance to progress further in the cup. Sadly the draw wasn’t good for us and we now have to go all the way up to Newcastle next Saturday to play Blyths neighbours Newcastle Benfield.

For the game at Aggborough tomorrow we’ll be without quite a few players yet again. In addition to the long term Lee Vaughan and Liam Truslove we will now be without Will Longbottom after he picked up a bad ankle injury at Deeping and has now had his loan with us ended early to go back to Doncaster Rovers for treatment that will see him miss the next two months of action.

James McQuilkin missed the game last week and has a 50/50 chance of appearing tomorrow while there is still no words about the return of Dan Bradley or Ryan Croasdale. Bradley has a slight hamstring injury while Ryan has personal problems that will take quite a while to see through. Family comes first though so Ryan needs to be with them and not out on the field worrying about them.

With us being well out of the running for the play-offs at the moment we need to get a win at home to the Spartans. It’s going to be a tough game with them going so well but surely we have to start picking some points up sooner than later. The longer we go the bigger the gap is going to become until we suddenly find ourselves looking over our shoulders at relegation.

Photo © KHFC

Teams:

Harriers from:

Hall, Bannister, Webb, Williams, Taylor, Digie, Horsfall, Pearson, Finch, Croasdale, Weeks, Austin, A Brown, Sonupè, Bradley, McQuilkin, N’Gwatala, Ironside, Wright.

Blyth Spartans from:

Jameson, MacDonald, Hutchinson, Liddle, Buddle, I Watson, Bell, Cartwright, J Watson, Wrightson, Hopson, Mullen, McTiernan, Rivers, Horner, Hooks, Reid, Maguire, Dale, Longstaff, Laidler.

Talk about the game here and phone the Harriers Hotline on 01905 577 777 after the game too.

Links to Blyth Spartans websites here

Find Pubs around Kidderminster here