| Venue: The Citadel Date: 01-04-23 Farsley Celtic FC 0 Harriers 1 Att: 395 (away fans: 50) |
Harriers win on a cabbage patch
Report: Phil Lench
A first win in ten games on a cabbage patch of a pitch was the Harriers, and the fans, long overdue reward at Farsley Celtic today. Add in the cold biting wind sweeping in off the hills around Leeds (we’d left Kidderminster on a mild spring morning and arrived in Leeds to something like two months earlier) and it was never going to be the most enjoyable of games.
With Farsley fighting for safety just outside the relegation places, and the Harriers fighting for a bit of pride, then we knew we’d be in for a mainly defensive game. As it was it took just four minutes for us to go into the lead when a pin-point Joe Leesley corner dropped perfectly for Krystian Pearce to rise the higher and send a bullet header into the back of Max Dearnley’s net.
It was Leesley’s first start since January 1st and he showed just what we were missing at set pieces. A corner from Shane Byrne and a corner from Joe is like chalk and cheese for us. He went on to put another in three perfect corners within the following ten minutes but sadly without the same result.
After the goal the game deteriorated into hoofball from both sides and that was mainly due to being unable to play the ball along the bumpy ground. At one point towards the middle of the half the home side had a ‘shot’ on goal that actually zig zagged towards Christian Dibble and leaving him flat footed. Luckily he’s over six foot and managed to get down to tip the ball around the post.
The only other chance of note fell for Ashley Hemmings towards the end of the forty five when he was in the right place (without being caught in their offside trap) to pounce on a sliced ball. Quickly thinking he spotted the keeper slightly off his line and looped the ball over him. It was just a little too high though and cleared the bar by around two foot.
HT: 0 – 1
The second half Farsley came out fired up a bit more than they were in the first. It was still scrappy from them though, in fact it was still scrappy from the Harriers too. We had the first chance of the half but Leesleys’ shot got caught in the wind and went just wide.
Farsley came very, very close to drawing level just before the hour mark. They’d been given a free kick, for a dubious foul and not the first by the below par referee, that Frank Mulhern lined up to take. The wall lined up well but the curling kick was superbly taken and went curling over the wall to crash against the upright leaving the woodwork shaking for a further ten seconds afterwards.
By the other side of the hour mark we were mainly concentrating on hanging onto our slender lead. A dangerous ploy but one we carried out safely.
Mulhern had another free kick and this time the ball rebounded back off the wall. It’s no exaggeration to say that the Harriers fans were expecting the worst but were able to breath a sigh of relief after that.
With time beginning to run down Theo Williams was the next to come closest to a goal but his shot went well over as had most of their shots all game. We had a shot from Hemmings in the ninetieth minute that Dearnley held easily and that was the signal for Russ Penn to make a defensive change to preserve the three points. On came Tom Leak for Amari Morgan-Smith and with that defensive formation we saw the game out.
Farsley look a tough side to beat at home and that alone could be their saving grace by the time the relegation places are sorted out. For us the maximum points haul has moved us up a place to thirteenth but we now need to start getting a few wins at home too. Starting against Buxton FC next Friday afternoon, Good Friday.
FT: 0 – 1
Goal for Harriers: Pearce 4
The Harriers Online MotM is: Joe Leesley
Talk about the game here
Latest table and stats here
| Farsley Celtic FC | Goals | Subs | Time | Cards |
| Dearnley | ||||
| Scales | ||||
| Butroid | ||||
| Devine | ||||
| Butler | ||||
| Clayton |  | 88 | ||
| Allan | ||||
| Atkinson |  | 92 | ||
| Ubaezuonu |  | 69 | ||
| Mulhern | ||||
| Williams | ||||
| Subs: | ||||
| Morgan | ||||
| Syers |  | 69 | ||
| Turner |  | 88 | ||
| Muggleton |  | 92 | ||
| Jessop | ||||
| Harriers | Goals | Subs | Time | Cards |
| Dibble | ||||
| Foulkes | ||||
| Richards | ||||
| Penny | ||||
| Pearce |  | |||
| Morrison | ||||
| Leesley | ||||
| Lissimore | | 95 | ||
| Morgan-Smith | | 92 | ||
| Hemmings | ||||
| Byrne | ||||
| Subs: | ||||
| Palmer | ||||
| Leak | | 92 | ||
| Bearne | ||||
| Brown | | 95 | ||
| Hall | ||||
| Referee: | ||||
| Mr Benjamin Tomlinson | ||||
| Rotherham | ||||