02-04-22 – Report – Bradford (Park Avenue) AFC 0 Kidderminster Harriers 0

Third place begins to slide away

Report: Phil Lench

The Harriers are in danger of seeing that all important third place finish in the league table slowly begin to drift away from them if they don’t begin to improve their performances against lower down teams. Coming on the back of the 5-0 win at home to Curzon Ashton last Saturday many fans expected them to kick on and go for Bradford (PA)’s jugular but sadly that just did not happen as we struggled to inflict any real pressure on the seventeenth placed club.

Kicking off with an unchanged side from the last time out we did see a few changes on the bench with new loan signing Matt Stenson already out injured with a back problem and Lewis Montrose out with an illness. Coming in were Kai Lissimore and also Nathan Cameron on his way back from injury. Luckily for us he was there because it wasn’t long before he was called upon.

Bradford came into the game on the back of a creditable 0-0 draw at leaders Gateshead last weekend so they obviously had their tails up and probably thought they would be invincible. You couldn’t blame them if that was how they thought because they were also determined to get a similar result against us.

The first thirty minutes of the game contained very little to write home about. Scrappy on a 4G pitch there was very little passing on the floor from either side. The first chance of the game came to us for an Omari Sterling-James free kick that dipped but was saved by George Sykes-Kenworthy and the only real chance for the hosts was for  Brad Dockerty when he broke free and, possibly offside, collected a through ball and fired at Luke Simpson on the angle. Luke got a hand to the ball but it spun away towards the goal and he had to stretch to push it away off the line.

Just after the thirty minute mark Alex Penny went down following an innocuous clash. Staying on the ground to pathetic jeers from some Bradford fans it was thought at first it could have been his ankle still troubling him but afterwards we were told it was a groin injury. He hobbled off and on came Cameron but after that we began to improve and looked a more solid unit.

With the change we saw our first two attempts on goal with Amari Morgan-Smith firing, slightly weakly, in for the keeper Sykes-Kenworthy to collect easily. Sam Austin then tried his luck too but again the keeper faced no problem in collecting the ball. It was all looking a bit toothless from us.

With a few minutes left until the break Simpson was called on again to come to the Harriers rescue when Lewis Knight beat our defenders again and fired in but again Simpson got a hand to it to push it out for an unproductive corner.

HT: 0 – 0

It took a good ten minutes for both sides to settle down for the second half and it was us to get the first sight of goal when Joe Foulkes fired across the face of goal. A few minutes later we were handed a free kick some way out – though to be well out of OSJ territory –  but he tried anyway and the ball flew towards goal and somehow the keeper again pulled a rabbit out of the hat to tip it over the bar.

With the introduction of Devonte Redmond for Mark Carrington we began to take hold of the midfield and with it came the first hopes that we might get to see a goal. Ashley Hemmings tried but his shot was weak and Sammy Austin tried but that too was weak. We seemed to finding it hard to get any power behind our shooting and that could have been down to Bradfords tight marking. Morgan-Smith hardly had a clear cut chance all game.

In around the eightieth minute Ethan Freemantle came on for the disappointing Hemmings and we though at last we’re going to go with two upfront. Sadly Ethan went wide so that dream of AMS knocking them down for a partner to put the ball in the net was dashed. Ethan should really have scored when Sammy played him through though but he fired wide.

With the minutes ticking away, and the Harriers looking for the elusive goal the big chance of the game fell for Keziah Martin as he fired in from some distance only to see their keeper once again make a brilliant save to tip the ball over the bar.

Apart from a few half chances that was it for the day and with the news that AFC Fylde had beaten Farsley Celtic 3-1 at home the draw today seemed to be more of a defeat. Now four points behind third placed Fylde we have to make our game in hand count when we take on Alfreton Town on Tuesday evening. Mess that up and it looks odds on that we won’t be finishing any higher than fourth place.

FT: 0 – 0

The Harriers Online MotM is: Nathan Cameron

Talk about the game here

Latest table and stats here

Bradford (Park Avenue) AFC	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Sykes-Kenworthy
Ross
Odunston
Hopper			74
Havern
Fielding
Knight
Richman
Dockerty
Johnson
Hinds
Subs:
Toulson
Lund
Windass
Clee			74
Nowakowski
Harriers	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Simpson
Foulkes
Richards
Penny			33
Lowe
Carrington			63
Austin
Martin
Morgan-Smith
Hemmings			82
Sterling-James
Subs:
Cameron			33
Redmond			63
Lissimore
White
Freemantle			82
Referee:
Mr Richard Holmes
Preston