07-08-17 – Preview – Nuneaton Town Vs Harriers

After that un-wanted but expected defeat at home to Chorley on opening day the Harriers now travel the short distance to Nuneaton Town tomorrow evening. We obviously needed to make some changes to the team that failed to produce on Saturday and that could have come today with the signing of Dan Bradley from AFC Fylde for a fee of £75,000.

98% of Harriers fans at Aggborough three days ago could see that the problems were no different than the problems we faced in the final game of last season when Chorley came to us with the very same tactics and gameplan as they did on Saturday. To contain us, to rough us up a bit, to score and then finally to shut up shop. Again the management failed to learn from that and we ended up with the very same end result.

The number one failing was to, again, employ a winger at full back. Yes it can work as we saw last season with Zaine Francis-Angol, Jared Hodgkiss and Tyrone Williams but it doesn’t work with Sam Austin and the reason is because the first mentioned are primarily pacey defenders with attacking qualities whereas the latter is a pacey winger with very few defensive qualities. This needs to be addressed by simply playing the right players in the right place so play Williams there then?

We were also weak in front of goal and that could be down to Austin having to concentrate on defending while on the other side of the pitch Manny Sonupè was struggling to keep possession of the ball enough to get a decent cross in. Daniel Nti was anonymous throughout and needs to be doing more to warrant a starting place tomorrow.

Could it be that Bradley will replace one of them? Bear in mind that he isn’t match fit having not played since the end of last season.

Nuneaton were also defeated on opening day but comprehensively so. A 4-0 defeat at Harrogate Town wasn’t expected after the manager, former Harrier, Tommy Wright was assumed to have recruited wisely during the close season. Jordan Nicholson has returned on loan from Peterborough Utd while Jon Ashton has come in as assistant manager while also playing at the same time.

Also recruited are Alex Henshall from Kilmarnock, Brady Hickey from Barwell, the Wildin twins Luther and Courtney from Sheffield Wednesday, Callum Ball from Derby County and Ryan Beswick from Solihull Moors.

Nuneaton will be wanting to put that bad defeat behind them and we’ll be wanting to get our season off to a more positive start after that fiasco on Saturday. It’s not far to go either so a good turn out of harriers fans will hopefully see us coming back with the points.

Photo © AFC Fylde

Teams:

Harriers from:

Hall, J Brown, Webb, Williams, Digie, Daly, Keane, Croasdale, Joachim, Truslove, Weeks, Austin, A Brown, Sonupè, McQuilkin, N’Gwatala, Ironside, Nti, Bradley.

Nuneaton from:

Belford, Taylor, Ashton, Brennan, Gascoigne, Heaton, C Wildin, Anderson, Langmead, Beswick, Chambers, Henshall, Hickey, Mills, Nicholson, Trotman, Tweed, L Wildin, Elliott, Scott, Ball, Daniels.  

Talk about the game here and phone the Harriers Hotline on 01905 577 777 after the game too.

Links to Nuneaton Town websites here

Find Pubs around Kidderminster here