Match previews 2024-25

Date: 18-02-25 Match preview Vs Marine AFC Venue: Rossett Park Kick off: 19:45hrs Preview:Phil Lench Now the Harriers are back to winning ways, following the 2-0 victory at Alfreton Town on Saturday, we get a big chance to add another three points at Marine AFC tomorrow evening. With Marine struggling near the bottom of the table there won’t be a better time to achieve that. On Saturday at a murky, semi-derelict and depressing North Street it was goals from Reiss McNally and Amari Morgan-Smith that bought home the reward after a run of five games without a win to keep us in with a chance of a play-off spot. Now up to fifth and with three games in hand we’re

Date: 15-02-25 Match preview Vs Alfreton Town Venue: North Street Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench It’s our second away game of three games in a row tomorrow and it’s another comparatively short journey to Alfreton Town. One of the most looked forwards to trips of the season, or maybe not. Personally I think it’s the worst ground I’ve been to at this level but, strangely, some people like the place so there’s no accounting for some peoples taste. On Tuesday evening we went up to Chester FC, another shortish trip, and returned with a point from a game that couldn’t be classed as the ‘Beautiful Game’ but more as a battle. Apart from the first fifteen minutes when Chester ran

Date: 11-02-25 Match preview Vs Chester FC Venue: Deva Stadium Kick off: 19:45hrs Preview:Phil Lench We have to hope that this trip to Chester FC tomorrow evening isn’t going to be another fruitless journey. There are two main reasons for that and the first is that we have never won a single game at Chester in either of their incarnations and we’ve only drawn two games with the most recent coming quite recently in 2022 when Amari Morgan-Smith and Omari Sterling-James grabbed two goals for us. The second reason is that just lately our form has been nothing short of abysmal and we don’t want Chester taking advantage of that forcing us to endure yet another abysmal performance. That’s just

Date: 08-02-25 Match preview Vs Chorley FC Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench With the Reds going through a bit of a hiccup at the moment it’s time to put things right when Chorley FC arrive at Aggborough tomorrow. Following a good run over the Christmas period when we won eight out of nine games we suddenly slumped and in the three games since that run came to an end we’ve lost two and drawn one with the last defeat coming against Sutton Utd in the FA Trophy last Saturday. The Magpies come to us on the back of a thumping 3-0 home win against Buxton FC on Tuesday evening and on the previous Tuesday they went to Scarborough

FA Trophy 5th round Date: 01-02-25 Match preview Vs Sutton Utd Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench We, the fans, were hoping that there would be a new striker in by now but that hasn’t happened yet and if it does then it’s going to be last thing this evening. The need for someone that can hit the net became apparent at Oxford City last Saturday when, in a second half devoid of joy, we failed to even get near goal let alone get anything on target. Admittedly our heads had dropped following the assault on Joe Foulkes but that cannot be held as an excuse. Now we have to go into this home FA Trophy game against Sutton

Date: 28-01-25 Match preview Vs Brackley Town Venue: St James Park Kick off: 19:45hrs Preview:Phil Lench With the Harriers going through a bit of a rough spell at the moment now is not the best time to come up against a much improved Brackley Town. Just the one point from our last two games is our reward for going top of the table and if we have any hope of getting back there tomorrow evening then we’re going to have to produce something better than we did against Darlington FC and Oxford City. A home defeat against Darlington made our top spot precarious but on Saturday a really disappointing draw at Oxford saw us drop to third place with Chester

Date: 25-01-25 Match preview Vs Oxford City Venue: Marsh Lane Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench Here we go again! Another defeat out of the blue in a game that we were hoping would put a bigger gap between first and second place in the table and we only go and mess up yet again. Tuesday evening we were at home to Darlington FC and that was lost 1-0 with their goal coming as a breakaway after they had more or less failed to test Christian Dibble for the previous seventy odd minutes. In previous weeks we’ve done the same trick at home with Rushall Olympic and, to a certain extent, away at Kings Lynn Town. I’m now dreading the visits

Date: 21-01-25 Match preview Vs Darlington FC Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 19:45hrs Preview: Phil Lench The Reds are quickly back into action tomorrow evening when Darlington FC arrive at Aggborough for this re-arranged game due to our continued progress in the FA Trophy. After we disposed of Slough Town 4-0 on January 4th we were drawn against Sutton Utd on the day that we were to play Darlington. On Saturday we disposed of Warrington Town 2-0 and that continued our occupation at the top of the table. Now we need to consolidate that lead especially because second placed Kings Lynn Town aren’t playing. If we lose though then Chester FC and Brackley Town are well placed to catch up with

Date: 18-01-25 Match preview Vs Warrington Town Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench We meet Warrington Town at Aggborough tomorrow for the first time ever and it’s an opportunity to make amends for the defeat at their Cantilever Park home back towards the start of the season. The 2-1 reversal, after taking an early lead through Ben Beresford in the fifth minute, was undone when we sat back thinking the job was done and paid the price. That was our first defeat of the season after winning our first three games. A case of being dumped back to earth. Since then our paths have widened with Warrington struggling near the bottom of the table in nineteenth place while we’ve

Date: 14-01-25 Match preview Vs Scarborough Athletic Venue: Sports Stadium Kick off: 19:45hrs Preview:Phil Lench From one postponed game to one that was postponed a few weeks ago. On Saturday we were supposed to be off to the seaside at Marine AFC but that was called off (thanks to Marine for telling us early on. Appreciated) and now, tomorrow, we’re off to the seaside on the other side of the country when we go over to Scarborough Athletic in the hope that won’t be called off too. Just have to hope they’re as gracious as Marine if it is. The original game was supposed to have been played towards the end of November but the snowy spell we had then

FA Trophy 4th round Date: 04-01-25 Match preview Vs Slough Town Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench We’re quickly back into action following that New Years Day defeat to the bottom club Rushall Olympic. To easily beat two better clubs over the Christmas period, in Southport and Hereford FC, then go and turn in a rare bad performance takes some accepting for the fans but accept it we do. Following the Kings Lynn defeat in November we then buckled down and went on a great run that took us to the very top of the table so we now need to buckle down and progress in the FA Trophy at the expense of Slough Town. We got past AFC

Date: 01-01-25 Match preview Vs Rushall Olympic Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench Well I hope everyone had a great time at Hereford FC on Boxing Day? What a brilliant result for us in putting three goals past that lot but it’s now onto the next game. We usually expect to have a big visiting local team for a New Years Day game – someone like Hereford or AFC Telford Utd – but this year we have Rushall Olympic coming to Aggborough and it could be interesting to see if we have a big crowd for the game with Rushall not expecting to bring many fans. Still it’s a darned sight better than last season when we played Boreham

Date: 26-12-24 Match preview Vs Hereford FC Venue: Edgar Street Kick off: 13:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench After a season away from it we’re back to our annual Christmas trip to Hereford this Boxing Day. This time there’s an added spice to the game with our allocation of 700 sold out in days and some fans complaining that they’ve lost out and wanted more tickets given to us. They were warned not to book their seats at the last minute and now they’ve missed out. I’ll be there though. With both of us in the play-off places there’s another bit of spice we can add in and those three points would give one or the other bragging rights for the time being.

Date: 21-12-24 Match preview Vs Southport Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench The Harriers go into the final home game of 2024, at Aggborough, tomorrow when Southport are our festive visitors. With the Reds dropping down to fourth place following Tuesday evenings games – Kings Lynn Town beat Brackley Town to jump above us – we need to take this big chance against the Sandgrounders to go back into second. The only drawback is that we have to rely on Hereford FC beating Scunthorpe Utd away from home to achieve that. Did I just wish for a Hereford win? With Kings Lynn away at Chester FC too it’s all doable. We have good news coming into the game with

Date: 14-12-24 Match preview Vs Radcliffe FC Venue: Stainton Park Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench This game away at Radcliffe FC heralds the first return game of the season. We met up with them for the first time ever in our first home game of this season and recorded a 3-0 thumping of the new boys. The goals, from Zak Brown, Maz Kouhyar and Ashley Hemmings all came in a five minute second half cavalcade that bought them back to earth following their promotion into the National North for the first time ever. Their time here has been a bit hit and miss with them sitting fourth from bottom with just four wins from nineteen games. That leaves them looking like

FA Trophy 3rd round Date: 07-12-24 Match preview Vs AFC Fylde Venue: Mill Farm Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench Like a bad penny this club never go away. It seems that every time there’s a cup tournament involving the Harriers it’ll also involve AFC Fylde at some point and now we have another meeting. In our twelve games against them four have been a cup game and now we have a fifth to look forward to. This one is the FA Trophy 3rd round and, again, it’s not the first time we’ve played each other at this stage after we previously played them in 2022 and won 4-2 on penalties once extra time had been played. We’ve also played them

Date: 30-11-24 Match preview Vs Leamington FC Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench After that awful drubbing at Kings Lynn Town on Tuesday evening the team now have a big chance to redeem themselves, and their failings, tomorrow when Leamington FC arrive at Aggborough. A win would take us back into the mix nearer the top of the table after we dropped down three places from second to fifth and we should, at least, go back above Lynn who have no game due to their game at Brackley Town being postponed with Brackley playing at Stockport County in the FA Cup. Overall it was poor defending that let us down the other night along with a lack of bite

Date: 26-11-24 Match preview Vs Kings Lynn Town Venue: The Walks Kick off: 19:45hrs Preview:Phil Lench Storm Bert saw the cancellation of Saturdays game at Scarborough Athletic much to the annoyance of those fans that had travelled there long distance previous to the announcement and had booked hotels and suchlike. I didn’t do the trip this time but I did two years ago and then the Queen died and the game was called off. It seems to be a recurring occurrence where Scarborough v Harriers games are concerned. A new date for the game will be announced soon. Now we do have a long distance trip to come and that’s at Kings Lynn Town tomorrow evening. Their game at home

FA Trophy 2nd round Date: 16-11-24 Match preview Vs Halesowen Town Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench Our former manager, Russ Penn, makes a return to Aggborough with his new team Halesowen Town tomorrow in a game that sees us play them in our first FA Trophy outing of the season. To get here the Yeltz beat Congleton Town 4-1 a few weeks ago but now they get the chance to play a higher quality side 😉 😉 😉 Under Penn they’re having a very good season and, like us in the National North, they’re in second place in the Southern League table. Nine wins in fifteen games – just four defeats – is a good start for the

Date: 12-11-24 Match preview Vs South Shields Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 19:45hrs Preview:Phil Lench South Shields born Phil Brown will be welcoming his home town club to Aggborough tomorrow evening in what will be the first ever meeting between the two clubs. Both teams are on a good run of form but the Harriers hold the upper hand having been unbeaten now in seven games while Shields have won their last two games – against Warrington Town and Kings Lynn Town. On Saturday we beat Farsley Celtic by what is becoming our signature score, 1-0. The goal came from Ben Beresford on his return from injury and took all of a minute to score after coming on as a substitute

Date: 09-11-24 Match preview Vs Farsley Celtic Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench Quickly back into action we go with a home game against Farsley Celtic tomorrow and, here I go again, we desperately need to get that home win. It’s been too long! On Wednesday evening we saw off the tough challenge of Curzon Ashton with a single goal from Ashley Hemmings and at times we lived dangerously and could have given two precious points away if they had drawn level. If they had scored it didn’t look likely that we would have re-taken the lead due to the lack of goal scoring chances that we created. We have to be more focussed on that part of our

Date: 06-11-24 Match preview Vs Curzon Ashton Venue: Tameside Stadium Kick off: 19:45hrs Preview:Phil Lench While everyone else in the National North are playing tonight the Harriers will have to wait until tomorrow evening for our mid-week game at Curzon Ashton. The reason for that is that the Nash were playing Mansfield Town in the FA Cup on Sunday afternoon but lost 4-0 after getting Marcus Poscha sent off for a ‘handball’ on the line. Now we have to get them on the bounce and, hopefully, come away with a win. Being away from home that would be very likely because we seem to do well on our travels but it’s at home that we have problems. Again on Saturday

Date: 02-11-24 Match preview Vs Buxton FC Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench For the third time this season the Harriers will come up against Buxton FC but this will be the first time in a league encounter. The previous two games were both in the FA Cup with the second being a replay here at Aggborough. That game will be remembered for the wrong reason as that was the game in which Luke Summerfields leg was broken by a Buxton player who went in on him two footed and off the ground. Of course the incompetent referee, Oliver Noonan, thought it only necessary to issue a yellow card to the offender Callum Leigh when rightfully it should have

Date: 26-10-24 Match preview Vs Peterborough Sports Venue: Lincoln Road Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench After last weeks excursion to Needham Market it’s back up the A14 tomorrow for the slightly shorter trip to Peterborough Sports to look forward to. The long journey to Suffolk reaped it’s benefits with an accomplished 3-0 win and hopefully we’ll see the same kind of result at Peterborough tomorrow. That win was ruined three days later though when we failed miserably at home, in the league, yet again. Second from bottom, and only four goals, Marine AFC came to Aggborough on Tuesday evening and all we had to do was put them to the sword and go all out to score, then win. The

Date: 22-10-24 Match preview Vs Marine AFC Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 19:45hrs Preview:Phil Lench After finally getting a long overdue away win at Needham Market FC on Saturday the Harriers can now return to Aggborough in the hope of getting their first home league win since beating Oxford City 4-0 way, way back in August. Frankly that’s a poor statistic for a club that were supposedly hoping for a quick return to the National League. A brace for Ashley Hemmings, bracketed round David Davis’ first goal for the club, gained us the points in Suffolk against poor opposition but we still seemed to make hard work of it on occasions but by the end of the game it was ‘job

FA Cup 4th qualifying round Date: 12-10-24 Match preview Vs Guiseley AFC Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench After getting past Buxton FC in the last round, admittedly following a replay, we now continue our FA Cup journey with the visit of Guiseley AFC to Aggborough tomorrow. We last played Guiseley back in 2022 when they got relegated at the end of that season and went into the Northern Premier League Premier Division where they currently sit in fifth place. We’ll be without a handful of the team one short term and some long term. Short term Alex Penny is expected to return after missing the Spennymoor Town game last Saturday through a hamstring injury. It does seem a bit

FA Cup 3rd qualifying round Date: 28-09-24 Match preview Vs Buxton FC Venue: Silverlands Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench The Harriers are facing a tough FA Cup encounter at Buxton FC tomorrow and more so on their plastic pitch that, the last time we played them up there, led to injuries for some of our team that day and that was apart from the GBH inflicted on Ethan Freemantle who was subbed early in the game with a bad facial injury. In fact we had used all three substitutes by the time halftime came around. Having just about getting past Leek Town in the previous round we now have to do this at the first time of asking. The last

Date: 21-09-24 Match preview Vs Alfreton Town Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench The Harriers will be facing Alfreton Town tomorrow with loads of injuries beginning to affect our season. This makes a change to the normal situation playing them because the injuries usually come after the game! We now have Paul Downing, George Cooper and Ben Beresford out with bad injuries but, thankfully, Alex Penny will be back for the game. The worst of the injuries is to Cooper who managed to get twenty minutes under his belt while on loan here until he went off injured with a pectoral muscle injury that will see him out of the game for up to three months. This long a

FA Cup 2nd qualifying round Date: 14-09-24 Match preview Vs Leek Town Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench We have a respite from the league tomorrow when we get underway in this seasons FA Cup. Our first opponents are Leek Town, a club that we have played before in the 1980’s and 90’s with our last meeting coming back in January 1999. Town play a level below us in the Northern Premier League – Premier Division and currently sit in seventeenth place having played eight games but winning only two of them, drawing two and losing the remainder. The cup is a different matter though and they’ll be coming to Aggborough fired up and thinking they can do a

Date: 07-09-24 Match preview Vs Chorley FC Venue: Victory Park Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench This is the last game in a run of Saturday/Tuesday games that has seen us play twice a week for the past three weeks and in that time we’ve had a mix of results that has reaped three wins, a draw and also, sadly, two defeats. In total we’ve gained eleven points from a possible eighteen that see’s us in second place in the table. Tomorrow at Chorley FC we have to improve on that by getting all three points from a ground that it’s notoriously difficult to get anything from in the first place. Hopefully we’ll do it with Amari Morgan-Smith back up front

Date: 03-09-24 Match preview Vs Chester FC Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 19:45hrs Preview:Phil Lench Following another defeat on the road at Scunthorpe Utd on Friday evening – our second in a week having lost at Warrington Town six days earlier – we take on Chester FC at Aggborough for a Tuesday evening game. Our record against Chester is not the best and the last time we met up with them in the 2022-23 season we lost both games, home and away, 2-0. Chester initially didn’t get off to a good start this season but two wins at home in a week against Scarborough Athletic and Peterborough Sports have pushed them up into eighth place in the table and they now

Date: 30-08-24 Match preview Vs Scunthorpe Utd Venue: Glanford Park Kick off: 19:45hrs Preview:Phil Lench The Harriers face their biggest test of the season so far when they take on table toppers Scunthorpe Utd at Glanford Park tomorrow evening. We last came up against The Iron way, way back in February 2005, the year we fell out of the Football League. Since then we’ve both fell from grace into the non league scene with Scunthorpe coming down to the National League in 2022 and then falling straight through into the North a season later. Amazingly our paths crossed in passing as we got promoted to the National League the same year. Now we’re back and ready to renew our acquaintances.

Date: 26-08-24 Match preview Vs Oxford City Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench The Harriers have but a few days to pick themselves up off the floor following our first defeat of the season at Warrington Town yesterday. An early goal from the Birmingham City loanee, Ben Beresford, wasn’t enough to go on and win the game as we allowed Town back into it with two goals either side of the break. We now have to gain maximum points off an Oxford City side who lost at home 4-1 to South Shields after conceding in the second minute but clawed their way back into the game two minutes later. A second half rampage from Shields, adding three goals, saw

Date: 24-08-24 Match preview Vs Warrington Town Venue: Cantilever Park Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench In readiness for the game at Warrington Town tomorrow the Harriers have bolstered the ranks with the signing of free agent Tope Obadeyi. Tope spent time with us in pre-season and impressed most that saw him play and he gave us what was possibly the best goal of pre-season with a super strike from outside the area in the Newport County game. This game will be the second Saturday in a row that we’ve come up against a team that we’ve never played before. Last week it was Radcliffe FC and that game saw one of the Reds best performances so far in a comprehensive

Date: 20-08-24 Match preview Vs Brackley Town Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 19:45hrs Preview:Phil Lench Tomorrow evening will be the first meeting of the Harriers and Brackley Town since that memorable afternoon in mid-May last year. On that day we beat the hosts with two brilliant goals from Ashley Hemmings and gained promotion back to the National League. Sadly, as we all now know, we couldn’t maintain our stay there and now we meet up with Brackley again and no doubt both clubs will be there, or thereabouts, come the end of this campaign when we’ll probably battle it out once more. Until then this game will be another step towards that target. On Saturday we dealt with Radcliffe FC by

Date: 17-08-24 Match preview Vs Radcliffe FC Venue: Aggborough Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench The Harriers will be getting their home season underway tomorrow with a visit from the first of this seasons newcomers to this league. That newbie is Radcliffe FC, a team that gained their place here following the lifting of the Northern Premier League title last season. A potted history then: They’re better known as Radcliffe Borough but that name was dropped in 2018 following owner and boardroom changes in 2016. Radcliffe can be found in the Greater Manchester area but specifically between Bolton and Bury. They’re managed by the ‘duo’ known as ‘deadly’; Anthony Johnson and Bernard Morley who are more well known as being the

Date: 10-08-24 Match preview Vs Darlington FC Venue: Blackwell Meadows Kick off: 15:00hrs Preview:Phil Lench Our return to the National North league gets underway at Darlington FC tomorrow and hopefully it’ll be the good start that all Harriers fans are hoping for. We’ve had a pretty decent pre-season with some wins against good sides but, as we found last season, there was a lack of goals when we expected more. That situation has led to a call for a striker but none has appeared. Phil Brown has been trying but has been let down at the last minute as he found with Kurt Willoughby who had agreed to sign but then his old club Chester FC put the tempters out