01-12-22. Match preview Vs Alfreton Town

Preview: Phil Lench

Harriers fans will be watching two games within the next seven days that will take them out of their comfort zone. No Saturday/Tuesday here but instead we have Friday/Wednesday to get our heads around.

We start with Alfreton Town tomorrow evening (on Wednesday we have Chester FC at home) and it’s one that we have real worries about. Worries from both the fans and the team alike that our form isn’t really improving and the two wins at St Albans City and AFC Telford Utd were just false dawns after we lost at home to Gloucester City last Saturday in another shockingly poor showing from us.

The City goal from Matt McClure won the game, a game in which we hardly had a shot on target to trouble Brandon Hall. Our front line are firing on no guns sadly to say and there doesn’t look to be anyone coming in to sort that problem out. Russ Penn seems to be happy with what he has but, frankly, the fans are starting to show signs of impatience with Russ and the calls for him to resign are growing day by day. If we lose at Alfreton tomorrow then those calls will become screams.

We recently had a mini clearout of players and one of those was Yusifu Ceesay who we signed from Alfreton back in June. Ironically he has re-signed for them and he’ll no doubt play against us with a point to prove.We know his shortcomings – there are many of those – and we should know how to deal with him but no doubt it won’t work out that way and he’ll go and score against us.

Milan Butterfield is also with them and this season he seems to be getting more game time. One of those two will be on the end of heaps of derision while the other one won’t be. I wonder which one is which?  

We should be up to full strength with just Alex Penny and Nathaniel Knight-Percival missing through injury. There’s also the situation surrounding Shane Byrne to wonder about with rumours going round last Saturday that he wasn’t happy at the club and wanted out. If that’s the case then Penns job will be even further on the line due to both Byrne and Ceesay being touted as marquee signings before the season began and now it’s looking like a big mistake.

Going to Alfreton is never the first fixture you look for when they come out in July and a cold Friday evening in December is not high on most peoples list. We’ll just have to hope it’ll all have been worth it come 9:45pm.

Photo © KHFC

Teams:

Harriers from:

Billson, Palmer, Emery, Richards, Foulkes, McNally, Pearce, Margetson, Leak, Byrne, Brown, Owen-Evans, Leesley, McLaughlin, Rogers, Martin, Freemantle, Bearne, Hemmings, Morgan-Smith.

Alfreton Town from:

Willis, Askew, Smith, Lund, Clackstone, Wiley, Preston, McGrath, Branson, Hobson, Cantrill, Butterfield, Salam, Conway, Rhead, Southwell, Denton, Thewlis, Ceesay

Referee: Mr Darius Bradley. Bradford

Talk about the game here

Links to Alfreton Town websites here

Find Pubs around Kidderminster here