Match report Vs Chorley FCVenue: AggboroughDate: 05-08-17Att: 1793 (away fans: 130)

Harriers 0 Chorley FC 1

Harriers beaten by Chorley again

Report: Phil Lench

In a repeat of the play-off game at Aggborough in May we saw Chorley come here again with a repeat of their tactics and walk away with all three points. We also repeated our own tactics that proved the the Harriers manager John Eustace hadn’t learnt any lessons from that shocking defeat and the first of those came with the deployment of Sam Austin at left back to leave a recognised full back, Josh Webb, on the bench. He also had poor old Joe Ironside trying to plough a lone furrow up front instead of pairing him with Andre Brown. Also on the bench.

There were debuts for Cieron Keane, Declan Weeks, Brandon Hall and Liam Daly – all signed during close season – while on the bench was the aforementioned Webb alongside Kennedy Digie for the first time.

With the game starting late, due to problems on the M6 at Knutsford, we got underway in bright sunshine just a couple of hours after a storm that had swept across the area leaving flooding in its wake.

The Harriers started just as brightly as the sun with plenty of possession but not achieving much with it. It was early days though and we all thought that once they clicked and gelled we would soon see the back of the net ripple. Sadly for all our efforts in the middle of the park it’s in front of goal where it matters and that’s where we were running out of ideas already. Chorley had come with that same game plan again to soak up pressure, commit a few fouls and then chase the high ball into our half of the field.

Our best chance fell for Tyrone Williams ten minutes in when he sent the ball wide from a corner even though he should really have hit the target. The Magpies had half chances to score too but our new keeper Brandon Hall wasn’t really troubled and collected or cleared easily.

Just before the break Liam Daly also went close from a corner with a carbon copy of Ty’s effort.

HT: 0 – 0

The second half started at the same pace as the first with the Reds again in command. Our best chance fell for Ironside when he got his head to a nice cross from Keane and it looked to be heading home until somehow the Chorley keeper Matt Urwin got himself across the goalmouth to flip the ball away.

That seemed to wake up the visitors and they began to press our defence more and more culminating in a shot from Terry Gornell that forced hall into a save as equally good as his counterpart at the other end. We sent on Elton N’Gwatala in place of Daniel Nti and immediately we looked to have more industry in the middle of the park. His first move was to test the keeper from distance but ten his second was to fluff a pass that was picked up by Gornell who raced for goal only for Daly to get a foot to it at the death and deflect the ball towards Hall who saved with his feet.

 We threw on Liam Truslove and Andre Brown in an effort to grab that all important goal but Chorley had other ideas when they again broke free from a ball over the top that Marcus Carver struck fiercely goalwards only for Ty Williams to deflect the ball past Hall and into the net.

We tried our best to get the goal back but by then our formation was all over the place and we just didn’t seem to click. James McQuilkin had been moved into the full back rôle and was helpless in any creative moves while Chorley had now employed an eleven man defence to keep hold of their solitary goal and leave us frustrated at not getting a clear sight of goal.

In the dying seconds Andre Brown came close when he fired in what was possibly our first direct shot on goal and then a split second later fired just wide of the target to leave the fans wondering what the hell goes through the minds of our management at times like this.

We have an early chance to redeem ourselves at Nuneaton on Tuesday evening and hopefully we’ll be starting that game with a more suitable line-up.

FT: 0 – 1


Goal for Chorley: Williams 79 (OG)


The Harriers Online MotM is: Ryan Croasdale

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Latest table and stats here


HarriersGoalsSubsTimeCards
Hall    
Austin    
Keane 67 
Croasdale    
Daly    
Williamsog   
Nti 62 
McQuilkin    
Ironside    
Weeks    
Sonupè 77 
 
Subs: 
A Brown 77 
Truslove 67 
N’Gwatala 62 
Digie    
Webb    
 
Chorley FCGoalsSubsTimeCards
Urwin    
Challoner    
Blakeman    
Teague    
Leather   
Jordan   
O’Keefe    
Whitham    
Carver    
Gornell    
Wilson    
 
Subs: 
Charnock    
Jarvis    
Walker    
Roscoe    
Likoy-Elumba    
     
Referee: 
Mr Aaron Jackson
Liverpool