| Venue: International Stadium Date: 19-09-23 Gateshead 3 Harriers 0 Att: 672 (away fans: 47) |
Out of our depth three times over
Report: Phil Lench
Tonight it was finally bought home to us that we have club that are seriously out of their depth and that goes for all three parts. Management for picking such a strange starting eleven that didn’t include anyone that could dominate upfront, a team that seem to have lost confidence in the management and didn’t know what they were supposed to be doing and if they had would they have been able to carry it out. The third part is an ownership that have lost the supporters confidence and don’t seem to have the will to save us from crashing back into the National North and days out to Alfreton and Farsley.
Tonights team selection baffled everyone that saw it before the game and now, three hours later, it’s still baffling. Our two centre forwards that played against Solihull Moors on Saturday, Amari Morgan-Smith and Gerry McDonagh were both on the bench and we went with, what looked like Ashley Hemmings and Kai Lissimore upfront. It was never going to work and it didn’t.
The last time we played Gateshead they gave us a lesson in football and finishing and that was repeated again tonight. Marcus Dinanga, once on loan with us, opened the scoring after a passage of play that saw the Heed string thirty passes together and NOT ONE OF OUR PLAYERS PUT A FOOT IN. Disgraceful! They toyed with us and the final ball put Dinanga through on goal to score with ease.
We continued with that tactic and it was obviously going to happen again. On twenty minutes we backed off once again and from the edge of the area Greg Olley put his side two up with a stunning strike that left Christian Dibble rooted to the spot.
We looked an absolute shambles that first half and failed to test either their keeper or their defenders. The only one’s trying to get anything going, Joe Leesley and Barry Maguire, tried but no one up front showed any interest and if they had then they hadn’t got the quality to do anything with it.
HT: 2 – 0
At the start of the second half Russ Penn: relented, ripped up his formation, threw caution to the wind or just gave up. You choose?
On came AMS along with Zak Brown with Maguire and Jack Lambert going off. That was one decent player off then in an effort to save the managers face. Later on Kieran Phillips came on for Reiss McNally but it’s hard to remember if any of them really made all that much difference. All three were anonymous.
Gateshead increased the lead to three a further ten minutes into the game through Regan Booty after a neat bit of inter passing in the box saw our defenders watching in awe and that was game over.
The hosts bought a kid on for a bit of experience (we were that much of a danger) and allowed us a little bit of the ball. Not too much mind. We had a couple of fruitless corners, we tried to get into their box but we still failed to test the keeper.
All three parts of our equation are out of their depth.
FT: 3 – 0
Goals for Gateshead: Dinaga 6, Olley 20, Booty 54
The Harriers Online MotM is: Joe Leesley
Talk about the game here
Latest table and stats here
| Gateshead | Goals | Subs | Time | Cards |
| Mair | ||||
| Tinkler | ||||
| Booty |  | |||
| Grayson | ||||
| Richardson | ||||
| Hunter | ||||
| Hannant | ||||
| Francis | ||||
| Dinanga | |  | 85 | |
| Olley | |  | 72 | |
| Wearne |  | 64 | ||
| Subs: | ||||
| Storey | ||||
| Allan | ||||
| Rutledge |  | 85 | ||
| McBride |  | 72 | ||
| Chadwick |  | 64 | ||
| Harriers | Goals | Subs | Time | Cards |
| Dibble | ||||
| Oxlade-Chamberlain | ||||
| Richards | ||||
| Knight-Percival | ||||
| Pearce | ||||
| McNally | | 65 |  | |
| Maguire | | 46 | | |
| Leesley | ||||
| Lissimore | ||||
| Hemmings | ||||
| Lambert | | 46 | ||
| Subs: | ||||
| Penny | ||||
| Phillips | | 65 | ||
| Morgan-Smith | | 46 | ||
| McDonagh | ||||
| Brown | | 46 | ||
| Referee: | ||||
| Mr John Mulligan | ||||
| Carlisle | ||||