01-11-22. Match report Vs Scarborough Athletic

Seadogs send the Harriers to the dogs

Report: Phil Lench

After a couple of good results against Chorley FC and Banbury Utd it would have been fair to say that a corner had been turned following some poor results in previous games. Tonight, though, it looked like there was nothing much around that corner in the end as the Harriers came crashing back to earth in this 4-2 defeat up in the North Yorkshire wilds of Scarborough.

Fielding the same side as in those two previous games both sides started at a pace on the 4g pitch. Six minutes in and the first blood came the way of the hosts when their central defender, (remember that position because it has a big bearing on the outcome of the game), Kieran Burton flicked the ball beyond Tom Palmer from a corner. A ball in that was poorly defended.

With such an early goal it would have knocked many teams back a bit but, for once, that wasn’t the case here and within a minute we had pulled level once more. Ashley Hemmings found some space on the edge of the area and whipped the ball in for Ethan Freemantle to steer the ball beyond Joe Cracknell in the Seadogs goal. All square but it wouldn’t stay that way for long.

We could have taken the lead a quarter of a hour in when Shane Byrne let fly from the edge of the area only for Cracknell to tip the ball over for a corner. A minute later and it was the hosts that had retaken the lead instead when Burton doubled his tally for the evening, after the ball bounced around the area without a Harriers defender able to clear it away, and slipping the ball home.

That still wasn’t it and we came back again trying to draw the game level once more. Freemantle didn’t quite manage it, or to get his second, when his sudden and fierce half volley from distance saw Cracknell fly across his goal to push the ball away. Come back we did though and from an unlikely source.

Gabby Rogers beat his man out wide and sent a lovely cross into the area where Tom Leak met the ball with his head. The keeper got down to save once more but couldn’t hold the ball and it fell back into the path of Leak who made no mistake in putting the ball home this time.

Before the break two more chances to take the lead came our way. The first for Amari Morgan-Smith who headed narrowly over the bar and the other for Hemmings but his free kick, although heading for goal, was deflected away over the bar.

With the Harriers slightly on top the coming second half looked promising. 

HT: 2 – 2

Well that halftime talk didn’t go too well did it? Bet it went something like ‘We got them on the rack here lads. Just keep doing what you’re doing and we’ll win this game’ .

For the first ten minutes very little happened but then it all started to go wrong for the Harriers. Fifty four minutes and Burton (remember that he’s a central defender) got his hat trick after he got onto the end of a poorly defended ball at the far post to nod the ball home and then, only four minutes later, Scarborough had made it four.

Luca Colville fired a hopeful ball in only for Tom Palmer to fumble the ball and spill it towards Ciaran McGuckin who was never going to turn the chance of such an easy goal down. He could have added another three minutes later but Palmer redeemed himself and saved it this time.

The Harriers seemed to have no answer and struggled to make any kind of headway. Freemantle had a shot on the turn but it was blocked while Cracknell dropped a Rogers cross but recovered enough to push it out for a corner.

We made some substitutions to try and save the game but it was no use. Yusifu Ceesay, on for Freemantle, headed wide and that was it. What had looked to be promising at the end of the first half proved to be a false dawn and the Reds crashed to a 4-2 defeat and dropped a place to eighth in the table. We have Darlington FC, fresh from a 4-1 away win at struggling AFC Telford Utd this evening, at Aggborough on Saturday. Just hope we’ve learnt something from this defeat. 

FT: 4 – 2

Goals for Scarborough: Burton 6, 18, 54, McGuckin 58

Goals for Harriers: Freemantle 7, Leak 34

Talk about the game here

Latest table and stats here

Scarborough Athletic	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Cracknell
Weledji
Jackson
Maloney
Thornton
Gooda
Coulson			84
McGuckin
Burton
Glynn			86
Colville			76
Subs:
Watson			86
Plant			76
Tear
Heslop
Bramall			84
Harriers	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Palmer
Starbuck
Richards
Leak
Pearce
Byrne
Rogers
Martin			66
Morgan-Smith
Hemmings
Freemantle			74
Subs:
Margetson
Brown
Bearne
Lowe			66
Ceesay			74
Referee:
Mr James Westgate
Durham