08-01-19 – Report – Spennymoor Town 2 Kidderminster Harriers 1

Better from the Harriers but not enough

Report: Phil Lench

Following the trip, and defeat, to Darlington on Saturday we returned to that neck of the woods to take on Spennymoor Town. Apart from some missing players there was also a missing manager on the coach. Neil MacFarlane hadn’t travelled but that was purely down to him no longer being in charge.

Instead it was the Harriers chairman Colin Gordon sat next to the driver leading his new charges North. This was a game that was supposed to have been played at the start of December but wintry weather put paid to that so instead they were going a month later in equally wintry weather.

Apart from the missing manager there were quite a few players missing too and an old one returning. James O’Connor, George Waring and Ryan Johnson were all out either injured or suspended while Joe Ironside was back to lead the line following his fruitful loan spell with York City. There were even more kids on the bench tonight.

The game began scrappily and continued that way for most of the time. We had the first real chance of something when Declan Weeks fired a speculative shot over the bar from outside the area and then soon after Ironside tried his luck and that too went over the bar. Moors tried to fashion a few things but our defence was holding firm and didn’t give them much of a look in.

It took till almost the twenty fifth minute for them to test the Harriers keeper, Brandon Hall, and that was to parry away Stephen Brogans free kick. A better chance came for us later and one we should have scored from when Weeks delivered a free kick into the area and Kane Richards half volleyed the ball goalwards that the keeper Matt Gould parried away but only as far as Sam Austin who then sent the ball wide of the post.

Richards had another  chance of scoring minutes later but with just the keeper to beat he tried to take the ball around him only for Gould to push the ball away.

With the minutes board going up to show two more the game suddenly came alive. First a poor pass by Josh Heaton was pounced on by Andrew Johnson to send the ball beyond Hall and then just seconds later it was back to all square when Lee Vaughan crossed into the area and in came a flying Aaron Phillips to bury the ball into the net.

HT: 1 – 1

Winter comes early in the North and the second period began with the hint of snow in the air. Spennymoor began the strongest and leading scorer Glen Taylor tested Hall with a shot that Brandon closed down well to flip out for a corner.

They got even stronger when, five minutes after the restart, they increased their lead following an almighty mix up between Weeks and Phillips. Both players went for the ball and ended up colliding with each other then watched the ball run free for Ryan Hall to nip in and fire it beyond his namesake in the Reds goal.

That goal gave the home side the impetus needed to go after more goals and they began to exert more and more pressure on the Harriers back line. Shaun Tuton had a couple of chances as did Taylor with a shot that Brandon tipped over superbly. Then came the calls for a penalty.

Ryan Hall sent in a cross that Taylor got onto and powered in a shot from a few yards out. The ball hit Vaughan and, to a man, all of the Moors players called out for a penalty. Thankfully the referee saw it differently and waved their claims away.

We began to make substitutions and sent on Milan Butterfield and James Baxendale for Sam Austin and Josh Heaton but it didn’t change the situation for us. With no one on the bench who could change a game it was never going to.

We were now resigned to losing as Moors played the clock down and when the whistle finally went it was another defeat on the road for us. Our last away win came back at the end of October and that was also the last game we actually played well in. This was a stronger showing that down the road a few days earlier but still not good enough.

Are the fans happy to tread water in this league now that our promotion hopes are fading? We’ll find out on Saturday at home to Boston Utd.

FT: 2 – 1

Goals for Spennymoor: A Johnson 45, R Hall 49

Goal for Harriers: Phillips 46

Talk about the game here

Latest table and stats here

Spennymoor Town	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Gould
C Williams
Brogan
Atkinson
Curtis
Thackray
A Johnson			82
Henry
R Hall
Taylor
Tuton			67
Subs:
Elliott
Kempster			82
Bayne
Ramshaw
Boyes			67
Harriers	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
B Hall
Vaughan
Phillips
Weeks
Horsfall
Heaton			88
Austin			78
Penn
Ironside
Chambers
Richards			91
Subs:
Palmer
Baxendale			88
Butterfield			78
Higginson
White			91
Referee:
Mr Aaron Bannister
Wakefield