Harriers win convincingly

The Harriers won this game against last seasons play off finalists (at our expense) in a convincing fashion following a spectacular implosion by the Red Dragons of Wrexham.  With the visitors not having such a good season, and struggling near to the bottom of the table, it was to be expected that they would arrive at Aggborough knowing that this was a game that they could obtain a result from due to their important victory here at the end of last season.

Instead, rather than playing the kind of clean, flowing football that we know they can be capable of they instead resorted to conning the referee by flinging themselves to the ground at minimal contact, arguing about every decision given against them and in the end resorting to thuggish tactics that ultimately decided the fate of one time Harriers star Andy Bishop when he forearm smashed Kyle Storer in the chest.

Thankfully the referee, Amy Fearns, had decided enough was enough and dismissed Bishop for his crude assault.  It's just a pity that she had allowed the likes of Dean Keates, Jay Harris, David Artell and Brett Ormerod to get away with those tactics for the previous eighty five minutes of the game.

The only thing that she did get right was the Wrexham goal and that still took her the best part of five minutes to get her head round what had happened before eventually awarding it.

The game started with just the one change from the Macclesfield game.  Callum Gittings dropped out injured and Anthony Malbon returned to the starting line up.  Danny Jackman was again in the left back berth even though a fully fit and capable Mickey Demetriou was on the bench alongside Jack Byrne returning from injury.

As is the norm with us we started the game poorly and our passing was all over the place.  Wrexhams was better but that was possibly down to equally poor marking from us that let them dominate the early stages of the game.  By the time twenty minutes had passed they had already given fair notice of what their game plan would be when Ormerod and Bishop had both taken dives in the area and then claimed penalties.

Wrexham had earlier seen a chance from Joe Clarke go sky high over the bar after catching Danny Lewis off his line and then we do likewise at the other end when Storers free kick is skied over.

The game got the goal it was crying out for in the thirty first minute.  Danny Jackman, unusually high up the pitch, made a fine run to cross the ball into the crowded Dragons area for Joe Lolley to snap up a deflection and sidefooting a shot through the defenders and into the net.

We were in full control of the game now that our noses were in front and we could have gone two goals to the good if Josh Gowling had directed his header, from a corner, with a little more accuracy as it veered just the wrong side of the upright.  Another ten minutes later and Michael Gash should have also scored but his shot beat the keeper but was stopped on the line by the Wrexham defender Stephen Wright.

Both teams went into the break with the Harriers leading but Amy Fearns needed some big strong men to surround her as the Wrexham team swarmed round and intimidated her.  She would need more than a few strong lads by the time ninety minutes was up.

The second half started with the Harriers a little reluctant in getting going but this time it was to last a touch less than twenty minutes.

Wrexham came out with all battalions firing and within seconds should have pulled the goal back.  Keates played a free kick to Jay Harris instead of blasting it straight at goal as you would have expected for him.  Harris fired in a shot that struck the bar and then bounced down onto Danny Lewis' back and out to safety.

Instead of building on that Wrexham opted to go back to the neolithic style of playing the game and Joe Clarke should have been shown an instant red card following a reckless, knee high, tackle on Danny Jackman.  With Jackman in agony on the floor the game exploded into pushing and shoving with Fearns trying, but failing, to control the situation by walking away and calling the guilty party to her.  Problem was they all went over to her but eventually she singled out Harris to give him, guess what?, a measly yellow card.  Some deterrent that was going to be.

The only way to answer that situation was going to be score a goal and that's just what we did next.

Up at the far end Wrexham were calling for a penalty following a possible foul by Fowler on Bishop but the ref just, correctly, waved it away.  With Wrexham pre-occupied with complaining about the decision the Harriers swarmed away up the field with Lee Vaughan ??? leading the charge and pushing the ball out wide to Lolley.  He bought the ball in at a narrow angle and crossed low into the box along the line for the ball to hit Mark Carrington and rebound into the goal.

A few minutes later came one of the strangest sequence of events seen at Aggborough for many a year.

Wrexham had bought on the dangerous Adrian Cieslewicz just prior to our second goal and a fast break saw him surge towards our goal with defenders back pedalling.  He struck the ball at a sharp angle and, from our end, it looked as if the ball had gone narrowly the wrong side of the post even though it seemed to pass under the body of Danny Lewis.

With the ball striking the perimeter hoarding the Wrexham fans erupted and surged to the front with some invading the pitch.  It seemed to us behind our goal that there had been some kind of infringement by one of ours but, apart from Danny, no one else was near the ball.  In truth it had somehow crossed the line and then burst through the side netting.

At first the referee gave a goal kick and then with all the commotion going on the other officials called her over and told her what had happened but she, at first, seemed to disbelieve it until she spoke to the fourth official who told her that it was, indeed, a goal.

Now Wrexham had got themselves back in the game a normal person would expect them to kick on and go for the equaliser.  Not this lot.   They just wanted to administer retribution and break a few legs.

We had the perfect answer though.  We scored a third goal.

Lee Vaughan turned provider yet again when he put in a great cross for Chey Dunkley to run in onto and power home then turn to milk the applause of the Harriers fans.  A stunning header worthy of winning any game.

Even with our third, and winning goal, the game still wasn't over.  Wrexham decided again that the best way of getting back into it was to continue their pointless tactics and when Kyle Storer made a fair, but tough challenge on Andy Bishop the striker saw red and needlessly struck Storer across the chest with his forearm.  Even then Fearns took an age to make her mind up what to do.

With six minutes of time added on the game was run down with two Harriers substitutions and a few more tantrums from Wrexham.  The 3-1 result put us back above Luton who could only manage a draw at Chester in a game delayed by the closure of the M42 motorway and closed in by two points on leaders Cambridge who could only also draw in their later, televised, game at Barnet.

 Goals for Harriers: Lolley 31, 64, Dunkley 78
 Goal for Wrexham: Cieslewicz 71

REFEREE:

Mrs A Fearn Leicestershire