19-11-21 – Preview – Alfreton Town Vs Kidderminster Harriers

Preview: Phil Lench

The Harriers will be facing a tough encounter tomorrow when they pop into Derbyshire for a league game at Alfreton Town. They’ve shown an improvement in form lately and have risen from the lower reaches of the table up to the play-off places but then dropped down to eighth following their defeat at Gateshead last Saturday. We jumped above them to fourth on the back of our 3-0 demolition of AFC Telford Utd.

That win against Telford continued our fine run of form in recent weeks where we have astounded the watching fans with our complete performances against the likes of Bradford PA (5-1), Spennymoor Town (4-0), Grimsby Town in the FA Cup (1-0) and then at home last week.

Just have to hope we can take this form away from home too.

We should, hopefully, be at more or less full strength for the game. Alex Penny looked badly injured, with a bad limp, at the end of Saturdays game but video of him training and scoring released by the club yesterday shows that he looks good to go. There was also some video (left) of Cliff Moyo doing exercises so he looks to be good to go soon too.

Probably the best news we could have though is that defender Joe Foulkes has been given the all clear by his parent team, Walsall, to return to us for training next week and hopefully back in contention for playing sooner than later. With Penny settling in nicely while he’s been away he’s going to have to fight for his place back.

The former Harriers favourite, and Online sponsored player, Milan Butterfield now plays for Alfie so it’ll be good to see him again but less so to see Dan Bradley who rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way during his two spells with us. He also has a tendency to score against us too, sadly. Our own Amari Morgan-Smith formerly played for them too and he should get a warm welcome from their fans.

With both clubs on a good run of form it’s going to be tough going at North Street but isn’t it always. I truly believe though that we have enough in our locker, and play a better style of football, to get three points there. Let’s hope that’s the case come five o’clock tomorrow evening.

If you’re a glutton for stats then Shanes got some for you below.

Teams:

Harriers from:

Simpson, Emery, Richards, Cameron, Foulkes, Penny, Bajrami, Lowe, Austin, Montrose, Lissimore, Bonds, Carrington, Martin, Freemantle, Bastable, Clayton-Phillips, Tolley, Hemmings, Morgan-Smith, White, Sterling-James.

Alfreton Town from:

Willis, Smith-Eccles, Hare, Smith, Lund, Clackstone, Sutton, Wilde, A Jones, Wiley, Preston, Bradley, Branson, Johnson, Evans, Hobson, Ceesay, Butterfield, Sebbeh-Njie, Chadli, Rhead, Reeves, Cowan, Southwell.

Referee: Mr Adam Williamson. Durham

Shanes Opposition Stats Pack:

At home in the league: Brackley Town 0-1, Chorley FC 0-1, AFC Telford Utd 3-1, Leamington 1-0, AFC Fylde 1-1, Hereford 3-3, BPA 5-1

Goals (all competitions): Bailey Hobson – 5, Dayle Southwell – 4, Yusifu Ceesay – 3, Elliott Reeves – 2, Matt Rhead – 2, Adam Lund – 1, Connor Branson – 1, Rob Evans – 1,

Alfretons six game unbeaten streak snapped last week (2-1 away at Gateshead). Matt  Rhead hasn’t scored since his double in a 3-2 defeat at Chester FC on September 4th). Tom Allan, now at Farsley Celtic, scored three times early in the season for them and is still their third highest scorer.

Dan Bradley has had a couple of injuries but not sure what they were. He’s not played since the FAC, 2nd Qualifying round I think, at least that’s when he returned from his last one. He may have an injury or he may be out of favour?)

The Squad (appearances are starts + sub, includes both league and FAC):

Goalkeepers: Alfie Smith-Eccles (P0), Alex Hare (P0), George Willis (P14, conceded 18 of which 1 was a penalty).

Defence: Josh Clackstone (P14), Arun Jones (P0), Adam Lund (P9, 1 goal), James Jones (P0, on loan at Hyde Utd), Dan Preston (P3), Dominic Smith (P14), Ritchie Sutton (P4, on loan from Altrincham), Josh Wilde (P11), Dwayne Wiley (P8).

Midfield: Dan Bradley (P5), Connor Branson (P12, 1 goal), Milan Butterfield (P3), Luca Chadli (P0), Yusifu Ceesay (P9, 3 goals), Rob Evans (P13, 1 goal), Harvey Grice (P0, on loan at Grantham), Bailey Hobson (P12, 5 goals), Bobby Johnson (P9) Rio Molyneux (P0, on loan at Frickley Athletic), Mo Sebbeh-Njie (P0, ex Harriers U23 circa 2019/20).

Attack: George Cowan (P0) Elliot Reeves (P9, 2 goals), Matt Rhead (P14, 2 goals) Dayle Southwell (P13, 4 goals) 

Talk about the game here

Links to Alfreton Town websites here

Find Pubs around Kidderminster here