02-12-22. Match report Vs Alfreton Town

Far from Friday night fun

Report: Phil Lench

A rare Friday evening game saw around sixty Harriers fans travelling up to a cold and bleak Alfreton Town in the expectancy of seeing some goals to warm us up. Sadly what we got was yet another disappointment.

This is happening far too often now with the promises that the corner is about to be turned with our performances, and results, but then at the end we’re bought back down to earth with a thud except for the management who think that we played well. The photo’s of the lads laughing and smiling in training are now starting to wear thin and even more so the excuses that we’re getting for not winning a game, or even having a try.

We started with a very strange line-up that saw Joe Leesley taking the place of Joe Foulkes at right back, no doubt due to a knock that he had, but then we also had two capable replacements for Foulkes on the bench too in Ben Margetson and Tom Leak. What or why was the reasoning behind that? Also missing was Gabby Rogers – presumed injured – so you also have to ask yourself what is going on at training to produce these injuries.

The first fifteen minutes of the game was scrappy beyond belief, for both sides, with very little that would stand out. A half chance for a, yet again, subdued Ashley Hemmings playing very deep in midfield and a free kick from Alfreton that was pushed away by the Harriers keeper Tom Billson.

Around twelve minutes in it all began to go wrong for us when Ethan Freemantle and George Cantrill both went up for the same ball and both collapsed to the floor together. Cantrill got up first following lengthy treatment but Ethan took much longer and was eventually helped from the pitch looking very groggy. There was no blame to be laid at Cantrills door for the incident unlike others that have done so. It was just a clash of heads for a 50/50 ball.

Jack Bearne came on in Ethans place and as is Jacks wont was all over the place. First on the left then on the right then zooming through the middle then back out helping defensively. The lad’s a little terrier like dynamo. He got his reward soon after.

Jack was played in out wide and a moments hesitation between Josh Clackstone and his keeper George Willis left the diminutive loanee from Liverpool in to lob the ball deftly over the keepers head and drop it into the far corner of his goal.

After that goal we began to look more composed on the ball and played it around with some decent passing. It was in front of goal that our shortcomings, as always, was still apparent. Amari Morgan-Smith is not the force he once was and it showed with his lack of movement and speed of thought when the crosses came in. That’s when the did come in because most of the time our game was being played in triangles in the middle of the park. 

Things were about to go even more in our favour. The former Harriers midfielder Milan Butterfield had already been shown a yellow card by the fussy referee for a nothing challenge and then just a few minutes before the break he was booked again, and again for a seemingly innocuous challenge. Yellow converted to red and he was gone. Two minutes later the ref then booked Tom Billson in the third minute of first half injury time for timewasting. He wasn’t but the ref decided he was?    

HT: 0 – 1

We came out after the break with a change. Reiss McNally must have picked up an injury and was replaced by Ben Margetson.

Now that Alfreton were down to ten men the Harriers would have all the time in the world to take the game to the hosts and rattle in a few more goals to give us a long overdue convincing win. Even more so when, just four minutes after the re-start Willis got injured and Town bought their sub keeper, Jake Askew on in his place.  We could really go for it now. That was the idea but not the practise.

We struggled alarmingly to make any headway and abandoned the passing game to hoof the ball anywhere but to a team mate. Alfreton could cope with that easily and cope they did. We failed to test the reserve keeper at all and we looked a shambles. Leesley and Bearne kept trying but were getting nowhere.

Our poor attitude eventually gave the home side the belief that they could get something from the game and they began to take the game to us. Their manager, Billy Heath, sacrificed a midfielder for a striker with Jordan Thewlis making way for Dayle Southwell.

Their first chance of the half came sixty five minutes in when Bailey Hobson had his shot well saved by Billson and then we had a couple of half hearted attempts that we dealt with easily enough before finally, in the eightieth minute (yes it took that long) we finally saw our first real attempt on goal when Caleb Richards rattled the crossbar with a shot from distance.

Then it all went wrong.

A long ball forward from Alfreton caught the Harriers defenders napping as it fell for Dan Preston in the area. Billson dived in at his feet and Preston went down as the referee pointed to the spot. Up stepped Fatt Rhead, sorry, Matt Rhead to take the spotkick but he struck it poorly straight at our keeper who then parried it straight back at him rather than into a less dangerous are and Rhead followed up to knock the ball into the net and draw his side level.

All too late we then decided to go all out to regain the lead but we were just not good enough and Alfreton were too strong at the back for our weak forwards. Tom Owen-Evans was sent on in the ninetieth minute just as the board for an extra six minutes went up but his arrival was at least thirty minutes too late.

We had just thrown a 1-0 lead against a ten man side away due to our lack of ambition going forward and the lack of a competent hit man up front and Russ Penn thought we had played well. No we bloody well hadn’t!

FT: 1 – 1

Goal for Alfreton Town: Rhead 85

Goal for Harriers: Bearne 21

The Harriers Online MotM is: Joe Leesley

Talk about the game here

Latest table and stats here

Alfreton Town	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Willis			49
Clackstone
Preston
Thewlis			63
Smith
Butterfield
Ceesay
Branson
Rhead
Cantrill
Hobson
Subs:
Askew			49
McGrath
Conway
Southwell			63
Denton
Harriers	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Billson
Leesley
Richards
McNally			46
Pearce
McLaughlin
Brown			90
Martin
Morgan-Smith
Hemmings
Freemantle			12
Subs:
Leak
Owen-Evans			90
Foulkes
Margetson			46
Bearne			12
Referee:
Mr Darius Bradley
Bradford