12-02-21 – Preview – Kidderminster Harriers Vs Darlington FC

Hopefully tomorrow we might be playing a game of football at Aggborough because it’s now five weeks since we last played a game at home and exactly a month since we played at all. Tomorrow Darlington might be coming but we’re not even sure of that yet.

At the start of all these problems Darlo were saying that they wouldn’t be playing again until it was all sorted out, but now, following the threats of legal action by the National League they seem to have changed their stance slightly and appear to be leaving it up to the opposition. This opposition, KHFC, seem to be sitting on the fence though and haven’t really come up with a clear statement on what KHFC actually want. It’s all ‘we’re prepared for a game‘ and ‘we want to do what’s best for us‘ but not actually saying what that best is.

We’ll see in the morning then. Maybe we’re hoping for a frozen pitch to save us from having to issue a real statement. 

This week Amari Morgan-Smith was handed a further four match ban following his dismissal against Chester FC back in October. That was reported to be for using foul and abusive language to a Chester player and he was originally given a two match ban for that. Now, though, the FA have reviewed the incident and come down heavily on him and have turned the original two into six. He’s currently serving another different ban, for four games, following a red card at Hereford and the remaining four have now been added on to that so he won’t play again until mid March.

As in the preview for last Tuesdays ill fated game at Boston Utd we should still have a fully fit squad and we might see that rarity called a Kellermann. We had a bit of good news too after Ashley Hemmings signed a one year extension to his contract keeping him with us for a further season.

Darlington have played very few games this season – eleven compared to some clubs seventeen – due to COVID etc and sit in a false position near to the bottom of the table. They have played more recently than us though having been in FA Trophy action against Wealdstone FC last Saturday (they won 4-1). In the league they also haven’t played for five weeks so it’ll be interesting to see how they will be able to complete this disastrous season.    

They also have a string of injuries with Luke Charman out for several weeks with a knee ligament injury while they have three players out with hamstring injuries: Dan Maguire, David Atkinson and Tony McMahon.

Hopefully the game will be able to take place and we can sit down once more to watch the TV in front of our roaring log fires.

Stream is here: https://page.inplayer.com/KidderminsterHarriersFC/

Photo © KHFC

Teams:

Harriers from:

Simpson, Palmer, Phillips, Richards, Austin, K Lowe, Moyo, Penny, Arthur, Maxwell, Taylor, Montrose, Tolley, Prosser, Kellermann, Martin, Freemantle, Hemmings, White, Cowley, Sterling-James.

Darlington FC from:

Boney, Cranston, Saltmer, Hedley, Hunt, Laing, Liddle, Storey, Watson, Armstrong, Hatfield, Holness, Hudson, N Lowe, Sousa, Wheatley, Campbell, Holmes, Reid, Rivers.

Referee: Mr Kristian Silcock. Liverpool

Talk about the game here

Links to Darlington FC websites here

Find Pubs around Kidderminster here