FA Trophy 4th round
Venue: Aggborough Date: 04-01-25 Harriers 4 Slough Town 0 Att: 1854 (away fans: 222)

04-01-25. Kidderminster Harriers 4 Slough Town 0. FA Trophy 4th Rd. Match report

Ash Hemmings hat trick sees the Harriers through

Report: Phil Lench

The Harriers cruised through to the fifth round of this seasons FA Trophy with an easy win against Slough Town. A hat trick for Ashley Hemmings was also the easiest one that he would ever score.

With a much changed starting lineup we took to the field with five changes and Jim Kellermann making his full debut after signing with us until the end of the season. Also making his first start since returning from injury was Reece Devine while there was a rare start for young Seb Thompson.

Slough came to us on the back of a Trophy win at home to Maidenhead Utd in the last round but also a 5-1 defeat at Boreham Wood last Wednesday. Talking to their fans in the social club before the game they said that their manager liked playing the highline and that was always their undoing. And so it turned out that way today as even after going two goals down they didn’t change their tactics and the same could be said after the fourth goal went in.

We set our stall out from the beginning with a shot that their keeper, Charlie Horlock, dropped but not followed up, got cleared and played back to David Davis but his drive went wide. It took Ash fifteen minutes to open his hat trick account. A ball out wide found Maz Kouhyar who whipped the ball in for Kellermann to flick the ball on for Hemmings to slot the ball home.

Six minutes later he added his second goal when a long ball was flicked through the highline and found what looked to be an offside Ashley. The flag didn’t go up, thankfully, so he ran on and lifted it over their keeper.

Slough had what seemed to be their first foray into our half when Kellermann bought Henry Ochieng down on the edge of the area. He was booked for that but the free kick taken by their player manager Scott Davies went high and wide of the target.

Ash was getting a bit cocky by now and tried an overhead kick that was more embarrassing than on target as it went way, way over the goal. Our next shot, from Kellermann, also went way over the crossbar but as the half began to draw to a close Joe Foulkes fell badly going for a loose ball and tried to play on but it looked likely that we wouldn’t see him for the second half.

There was till time for a third, killer, goal though. Multiple attacks on the Slough defence saw them collapse once again when Maz Kouhyar made amends for a miss seconds earlier to capitalise on a mistake by Lexus Beeden and fired at Horlock. He parried the ball but only as far as Maz and this time he made sure.

HT: 3 – 0

As expected Joe didn’t return for the second half and Taylor Foran came on instead moving into central defence while Reece Devine took Joes place at the back. Slough made wholesale changes with three players replaced.

Early on Hemmings tried a cheeky back heel in front of goal but Horlock was alert to it and collected easily but his trio arrived soon after when Reiss McNally robbed Johnny Goddard of the ball and played it through for Ash, again looking slightly offside, to saunter forward and fire past the keeper and wrap the game up.

We seemed to sit back once the fourth goal went in and a ruck of substitutions occurred that took the edge off the game. The first was the surprising replacement of Hemmings by Kobe Hall but sadly Kobe failed to take advantage of the chance offered and I honestly cannot recall him touching the ball meaningfully. 

We still went looking for chances but they didn’t convince. Devine was our main driver in the search but the rest of the forward line didn’t seem on the same wavelength as Reece.

In the seventieth minute we almost saw Slough get a consolation goal and what a heart stopper it was. A driving run straight down the middle of the park by Leon Parillon played in substitute David Ogbonna and then Goddard who fired at Christian Dibble to make a superb save that was parried back to Goddard who then crashed his return shot at the crossbar and away for a clearance back upfield.

With the game drawing to a close came one of the more unusual scenes in a game when the linesman on the East Stand side suddenly fell to the ground. The ref stopped play as both physios came on to treat him. The lengthy treatment didn’t work and he went off to be replaced by the fourth official. Soon after the game came to an end and a victorious Harriers ventured into the next round of the cup on February 1st.

FT: 4 – 0


Goals for Harriers: Hemmings 15, 21, 54 Kouhyar 45+3


The Harriers Online MotM is: Ashley Hemmings

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Harriers Goals Subs Time Cards
Dibble        
Foulkes   46  
Richards        
Kandola        
Kellermann   81
McNally        
Devine        
Davis        
Thompson   82  
Hemmings 65  
Kouhyar      
 
Subs:  
Palmer        
Foran   46  
Brown        
Obadeyi   82  
Downing        
Hall   65  
Reynolds   81  
 
Slough Town Goals Subs Time Cards
Horlock        
Jackman        
Parillon      
Beeden   46  
Bayliss        
Davies        
Ochieng        
Goddard   76  
Spasov   74  
Gilbert   46  
Alfa   46  
 
Subs:  
North        
Amartey   76  
Roth   46  
Spicer        
Lucan   74  
Evans   46  
Ogbonna   46  
 
Referee:  
Mr William Davis
Stockport