03-08-24. Harriers finish pre-season with another win

Harriers 2 Stoke City U21 0

The Harriers finalised their pre-season with a win on home turf against a Stoke City U21 side under the management of Ryan Shawcross and his assistant Liam Lawrence. A goal in each half from Ashley Hemmings and Amari Morgan-Smith gave the Reds the somewhat easy win.  

Easy because Stoke didn’t really look like scoring and Christian Dibble had very little to do apart from watching a Dara McGuiness header over the bar in the first half and late on in the second a shot that went over the bar from Kieron Willox.

We started the game with a team that looked close to the starting eleven for the season opener at Darlington FC next Saturday but without Reiss McNally out injured while Luke Summerfield was on the bench. It was the visitors who began the strongest, passing the ball around smoothly and quickly closing down any threat from us. Nothing came from that possession and slowly we began to take control of the game. 

Our first chance came from Maz Kouhyar on the quarter with an angled shot that went over the bar. Again our best player out there was Joe Foulkes, looking a class above his team mates, who was all over the park getting stuck in, tidying up, and racing upfield putting crosses in.

On the other side Caleb Richards was also getting free reign and it was from his cross that our first goal came when his cross come shot was glanced home by Hemmings although, personally, I don’t think Ash touched it.

The remainder of the half was one sided and Maliq Cadogan should have scored with a shot that seemed to lack power and conviction and was easily collected by the former Arsenal youngster Noah Cooper. McGuiness had a similar chance late on in the half but it went the same way as his first effort. 

HT: 1-0

The second period began with no changes for either side but Stoke did come back out with more of a game plan to get at us more. That didn’t last long though and soon after the restart we added a second goal to our tally. The ball was played into the area by Kouhyar, after having won the ball back under pressure, and Hemmings got a foot to it guiding it towards Cooper. It rebounded back out to AMS, stood a yard or so out, and he side footed the ball home for his one and only goal of the pre-season.

We were hoping for a third goal but it wasn’t to come but not through the lack of trying. Kouhyar played in Hemmings but he was beaten to the ball by Cooper while Phil Brown was beginning to prep the subs. On came Seb Thompson and Samson Hewett to replace Hemmo and Paul Downing with, strangely, AMS moving back into the position occupied by Downing.

Thompson looked to be pro-active and chased everything down and also managed to get a firm shot away that went wide of the mark. Late on City had their only chance of the half that went over and we bought on Noah Rubio, Tope Obadeyi (Trialist D) and our latest signing Reece Devine.

With little to do in that time it was hard to see what they could do but Rubio looked lively and promising.

So now the countdown begins and the team will begin the preparations for Darlington while we, the fans, will continue to ask questions of a striker and the seemingly non-existent kit. Will we see either before next Saturday?

FT: 2-0

Harriers: Dibble, Penny, Richards, Foulkes, Downing, Davis, Brown, Hemmings, Cadogan, Morgan-Smith, Kouhyar.

Subs: Palmer, Bishop, Devine, S Hewett, Summerfield, Thompson, Rubio, Hall, Lambert, Trialist D.

Stoke City: Cooper, Mears, Bickerton, Badley-Morgan, Griffin, Lipsuic, Jeffers, Smith, McGuiness, Griffiths, Chibueze.

Subs: Powell, Gyimah, Brooks, Gromek, Adekoya, Willox, Montondo, Watson, Jojic.

Att:779