07-01-23. Match report Vs Leamington FC

Weak and without conviction

Report: Phil Lench

Another game without a goal was the reward for the, just short of, 300 Harriers fans that travelled to a rain soaked Leamington FC today. Ironically, for all the lack of goals in previous games, we started with three recognised strikers up front and also one, Kobe Hall, on the bench. Something unheard of this season from our management team.

With Amari Morgan-Smith, Ethan Freemantle and Jack Bearne out there it looked to be a team set up to score but sadly that didn’t happen. It wasn’t just the lack of goals though but also a dire first half yet again when neither club looked to be capable of passing the ball let alone score. The second half was better, for us, but still we rarely looked like scoring and in fact the nearest we came was from a typical over hit goal kick from Tom Palmer that almost caught the Brakes keeper napping.  

Before the game there was a danger of it being called off due to a waterlogged pitch but it did go ahead on the proviso from the referee that if the heavens did open again before kick off then he would call it off. You just cannot trust our weather at all so it went ahead. There was a minutes applause for the former Harriers U23 player, Cody Fisher, that was instigated by Leamington unlike his own former club that could only pay lip service at Aggborough last week.

As for the game itself then it took thirty minutes before we saw any kind of goalmouth action when Leamingtons Louis Hall tried his luck but his luck was a routine save for Palmer.

And that was it basically. Our two central strikers rarely saw the ball while neither did Jack Bearne who had nothing to work with for putting balls into the box. When we had the ball defensively it was just being booted clear upfield to be collected by their keeper Callum Hawkins. He, at least, did play it back to his team mates but they hadn’t got the nous to get past our route one defenders.

Reiss McNally was probably the worst in that respect when all he needed to do was put his foot on the ball and find the waiting Bearne.

To great relief the half ended. 

HT: 0 – 0

The second half was a slight improvement on the first but then it would have been hard to be any worse. At least we did begin to actually pass to a team mate and I would say that we won the possession stats with around 75% of them.

Zak Brown was the first of ours to try his luck but his luck went wide. Leamington followed up with their only effort of the game when a Theo Streete shot was blocked well by Palmer.

Actual shots on goal, or chances being created, were still in short supply so on the hour mark came the first change when a double sub saw Ashley Hemmings coming on for Bearne and Tom Owen-Evans for Kai Lissimore. Ash gave us a bit more out wide in taking players on but when he did manage to get a ball into the box it invariably landed in the arms of the keeper.

Our best chance of scoring came in the seventy second minute with Palmers long kick forward (aren’t they all?) that got carried by the wind towards Hawkins goal. The Brakes keeper saw it at the last second and tipped it over but from my viewpoint I think it was going to either hit the crossbar or go just over anyway.

Seven minutes later Kobe Hall earnt his debut when he came on for Ethan Freemantle. Hall is an academy player that we have high hopes for and boy don’t we need it.

The last chance to claim the three points came in extra time but Zak Browns shot from the edge of the area was weak and without conviction and that basically sums us up. Weak and without conviction.

To great relief the game ended.

FT: 0 – 0

The Harriers Online MotM is: Shane Byrne

Talk about the game here

Latest table and stats here

Leamington FC	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Hawkins
Meredith
L Hall
Clarke
Streete
Lane
Cross			77
Walker
English			84
Edwards
Turner
Subs:
Kelly-Evans			77
Maye
Reid			84
Taylor
Mace
Harriers	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Palmer
Foulkes
Richards
McNally
Pearce
Byrne
Lissimore			61
Brown
Morgan-Smith
Freemantle			83
Bearne			61
Subs:
Owen-Evans			61
Hemmings			61
Martin
Margetson
K Hall			83
Referee:
Mr Gareth Thomas
Staffordshire