Venue:
Aggborough
att:  3047  away fans:  
Extra info
Harriers
2
  Bastock 22 (og)
  Williams 73
Harriers end the season with a win but are made to work hard for it.
Hats wins more awards.
Boston Utd
0
  
 harriers-online match report
Saturday 8th May 2004 
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Harriers end season on a high


The end of a long season of highs and lows finally came to end at Aggborough today when we beat a disappointing Boston Utd 2-0 with an own goal from the Utd keeper, following a superb shot from Simon Brown, and what could be the last ever goal for us from John Williams.

There were last day starts for a sprinkling of players that have fallen out of favour in recent weeks.  Stuart Brock returned in place of the injured John Danby, Scott Stamps took the place of Steve Burton and Scott Rickards came back for his first start since Swansea City were our visitors in February.

It's not known yet who was playing their last game for us but I would have thought that John Williams will not be here next season.  The rest would be any ones guess.

One player who will definitely be here is Wayne Hatswell.  Following his blagging of all the votes in the PotY poll on this website (here) he ended up getting three awards before todays game.  Supporters Player of the Year, Junior Supporters Player of the Year and the Kidderminster Shuttle award will all be taking pride of place in his downstairs loo tonight.

Boston have improved in recent months and naturally we were expecting a tougher game than the one we got.  In the end they didn't really impose any threat to us and we made extremely hard work in achieving our win.

Right from the start we were up for it and we took the game straight to Boston.  John Williams was the first to get a chance to open the scoring when he could only watch as his shot from a Scott Stamps corner went just over the bar.

Sean Parrish also went close just a few minutes later when he saw his slightly weak shot saved by Bastock, in goal for Utd.

After more probing by the Harriers we finally took the lead after 22 minutes with an own goal following a superb build up and shot by the man borrowed from the Baggies, Simon Brown.

He took the ball past a couple of talentless Boston defenders and, with a jink to the right, let fly from the edge of the area.  The ball screamed past Bastock, hit the post, rebounded onto the keepers body and this time went the right side of the post and into the net.

A lucky goal in the end but they all count.

Mark Yates was the next to try his luck but, after getting into a good position for the shot, he failed to make the most of his chance and put it straight into the keepers arms.

It wasn't all going the Harriers way though.  David Noble saw his free kick bounce off Brockies bar after our keeper had failed to see it coming.

Then on the stroke of half time Steve Melton got free in the 6yd box only to see his chip tipped over the bar by Stuart Brock.


HT. 1 - 0

The second half saw Boston come out with a bit more purpose about their game but still they failed to make any real impression on the Harriers rearguard.  Their defence had been tightened up a bit too and our frontmen were getting a bit less freedom.

We didn't need frontmen for our next assault on goal though, that came through the combined efforts of two defenders.  Scott Stamps supplied the corner and it was big Abdou who met the ball at the far post but his header was slightly wayward and went the wrong side of the post.

The game went through a quiet spell then and you could sense the feelings coming from the Harriers fans that we might yet throw this result away.  Our attacks on goal were getting rare and Boston had started to increase the pressure without actually getting in a shot on goal.  Thankfully it was one of our most maligned players that stunned the crowd with a moment of sheer guts, skill and bravado.

A brilliant run across the goal by Matt Gadsby saw him drift past one defender, round a second, stumble and regain control past a third, put the ball beyond the last defender for John Williams to add the icing to Matts cake with a lovely sweeping finish.

That kind of thing is what Gadders should be remembered for.  Above his dodgy passing and crosses to no-one in particular.  Memorable.

The remainder of the game was played out towards it's eventual conclusion with just the one off target effort from Sean Parrish for us and a header from Graeme Jones for our visitors that went well over the bar.

A decent end to the season for us and next year some new, and not so new, faces to meet.  Grimsby, Notts County and Wycombe are down from the 2nd Division along with our old foes Rushden, who are already amongst the favourites for the Conference at the end of next season.  Up from that League already are Chester City and either Aldershot or Shrewsbury.  Shrews will do for me.


FT. 2 - 0

The Harriers-Online
Man of the Match is : 
Simon Brown

If the board were to put their hands into their, not very deep, pockets Brownie could be ours for keeps.  I can't see that happening though.
Lets hope that Albion agree to a loan again next season.

vote for your
man of the match now

Harriers  subs   cards      Boston  subs   cards 
Brock     Bastock  
Sall     Beevers  
Stamps   Greaves
Hatswell     Ellender
Hinton     Thompson  
Gadsby     Chapman  
Rickards     Noble
Yates     Rusk  
J Willians   Jones  
Parrish     Melton  
Brown     Thomas  
SUBS:       SUBS:    
Murray     Croudson  
Burton     Hurst  
Christiansen     Balmer  
Jenkins     Angel  
McHale     Cropper  

REFEREE:
Mr J Ross
London

links to some
boston websites:

official site
scotty walds
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