| Venue: Aggborough Date: 16-09-23 Harriers 0 Solihull Moors 1 Att: 3016 (away fans: 506) |
Harriers ‘excellent’ home record is gone
Report: Phil Lench
The Harriers fell to their first home defeat of the season against Solihull Moors today, a game that was played out in front of the TNT Sport cameras, and again we failed to find our scoring touch to leave us in twenty first place in the table with just four goals scored. We huffed and puffed to claw back the goal scored by the Moors in the fourteenth minute (offside btw) but to no avail and if we’d still been playing at midnight in an empty stadium, with Solihull having gone home, it’s still doubtful we would have scored.
The game got underway with Gerry McDonagh getting a second start of the season and Krystian Pearce on the bench due to his exertions for Barbados last week. Ashley Hemmings dropped to the bench to allow McDonagh in.
For the first five opening minutes it was all guns blazing and we all thought we were going to see a transformed Harriers at last. Visions of the final games of last season crossed our eyes but it wasn’t to be. Five minutes was all we were getting.
In that short spell it was Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain who should surely have grabbed our opening goal when he got on the end of a Caleb Richards cross aimed for his head but sent it wide when it would have been easier to score. He had another chance soon after with a shot but that went even ‘widerer’.
By this time Moors had soaked it all up and then took control of the game. We seemed to have little idea how to get going again and then came the sucker punch.
Barry Maguire gave away a free kick some way out from goal and Jamie Osborne sent a looping ball into the Harriers penalty area that was flicked on by Mark Beck towards Matty Warburton who was being marshalled by Reiss McNally. McNally’s challenge was weak though and Warburton, looking to be slightly offside, headed home past Christian Dibble.
We tried to get back into the game with the best chance coming the way of Maguire with a well struck shot that just clipped the boot of Gus Mafuta and was deflected onto the bar with the young Moors keeper, Tommy Simkin, stranded.
Another great chance to score came the way of the Ox midway through the half when a ball played through the centre of the park by McDonagh set him on his way towards goal but with two defenders quickly getting back he ran out of ideas, and legs, and the chance was gone. That’s what you get when so-called strikers are playing far too deep and it’s all left to a defender to deal with.
Solihull seemed content with their slender lead and we went into the break with any further real chances.
HT: 0 – 1
As is usual for us the second half was more of the same. No sign of any kind of pep talk to get them fired up, just to go out there and continue in the same vein.
Jack Lambert, having his best game for us so far this season, sent a header over the bar and then ten minutes later he forced Simkin into a decent save after he had won the ball back from a defender to get a shot away. Solihull had packed their defence and seemed happy with that.
Amari Morgan-Smith sent a header over the bar while Nathaniel Knight-Percival sent a shot well over the bar. We seem to be getting better at that kind of thing because he wasn’t the only one guilty of trying to clear the stand. We must practice that in training!!!
The Ox had another chance when substitute Hemmings teed him up but his shot got tipped over the bar and that was with ten minutes left to play. Did we raise our game? Did we heck as like.
So our ‘excellent’ unbeaten home record is gone and still we seem unable to score. God help us at Gateshead this coming Tuesday evening.
FT: 0 – 1
Goal for Solihull: Warburton 14
The Harriers Online MotM is: Joe Leesley
Talk about the game here
Latest table and stats here
| Harriers | Goals | Subs | Time | Cards |
| Dibble | ||||
| Oxlade-Chamberlain | ||||
| Richards | ||||
| Knight-Percival | ||||
| Penny |  | 69 | ||
| McNally | ||||
| Maguire |  | 80 | ||
| Leesley | ||||
| Morgan-Smith |  | |||
| McDonagh |  | 60 | ||
| Lambert | ||||
| Subs: | ||||
| Pearce | ||||
| Phillips |  | 80 | ||
| Hemmings |  | 60 | ||
| Brown |  | 69 | ||
| Lissimore | ||||
| Solihull Moors | Goals | Subs | Time | Cards |
| Simkin | ||||
| Clarke | ||||
| Stearman | ||||
| Osborne | | |||
| Mafuta | ||||
| Morrison | ||||
| Benn | ||||
| Maycock | | 85 | ||
| Beck | ||||
| Craig | ||||
| Warburton |  | | 82 | |
| Subs: | ||||
| Kelly | ||||
| Newton | | 85 | | |
| Stevens | | 82 | ||
| Brogan | ||||
| C Hall | ||||
| Referee: | ||||
| Mr Aaron Jackson | ||||
| Liverpool | ||||