Match reports 2024-25
Venue: Lincoln Road Date: 26-10-24 Peterborough Sports 0 Harriers 1 Att: 348 (away fans: tba) Either side of the break is where the excitement happened Report: Phil Lench The Harriers managed to overcome a resilient Peterborough Sports with a goal very early in the second half from Amari Morgan-Smith to clinch our second away win in a week and AMS’s sixth goal of the season to make him the Harriers leading scorer. To be honest up until the goal it had been a game devoid of any skill or real excitement until the final minute of the first half. First a Maz Kouhyar shot had crashed against the bar and in the melee following tempers flared and the former Harrier
Venue: Aggborough Date: 22-10-24 Harriers 0 Marine AFC 0 Att: 1936 (away fans: 73) Harriers fail miserably at home yet again Report: Phil Lench Again, for what seems the umpteenth time this season, the Harriers failed to win at home and failed to score at home. The below 2000 attendance must be ringing alarm bells somewhere in the corridors of power where promotion was to be the aim this season. That’s now looking very unlikely as the fans trooped out of the stadium thinking that was more of a defeat than a point won. Marine AFC, second from bottom in the table and only four goals scored so far, should have been meat and drink to our full time professionals
Venue: Bloomfields Date: 19-10-24 Needham Market 0 Harriers 3 Att: 462 (away fans: 100) Harriers get their first away win since the opening day Report: Phil Lench The Harriers cruised to their first away win, at Needham Market, since the opening day of the season way back on August 10th when we came away from Darlington FC with a 2-1 win. A first double goal tally from any player so far saw Ashley Hemmings gain that accolade. It was a just reward for him after his poor performance against Guiseley AFC in the FA Cup last Saturday that saw the Reds go crashing out following a multitude of missed chances by him, including a poorly taken penalty kick. A performance
FA Cup 4th qualifying round Venue: Aggborough Date: 12-10-24 Harriers 0 Guiseley AFC 1 Att: 2299 (away fans: 126) A disgraceful second half shambles sees us exit the FA Cup Report: Phil Lench Well that was bad wasn’t it? BAD!, BAD!, BAD! Following a shocking, substandard second half performance the Harriers went crashing out of the FA Cup and in doing so missed out on a near £10,000 payday that could have seen the club recruit a decent goalscorer that can take penalties because by God Ashley Hemmings certainly can’t. His first half dance up, pirouette, hop, skip, jump, weak side footed rolled ball to the Guiseley AFC keeper was totally cringeworthy and we do not want to see that
Venue: The Brewery Field Date: 05-10-24 Spennymoor Town 1 Harriers 1 Att: 1253 (away fans: 100) Harriers fail to win on the road once again Report: Phil Lench The Harriers have now failed to win a League game away from home since the opening day win at Darlington FC. Our only previous away draw came in the FA Cup at Buxton FC and this one at Spennymoor Town today makes it just three points on the road for a club that have aspirations to gain promotion back to the National League at the first attempt. If things don’t begin to improve we might even find ourselves out of contention of the play-offs too! We know that we have some crucial
FA Cup 3rd qualifying round replay Venue: Aggborough Date: 01-10-24 Harriers 2 Buxton FC 0 Att: 1123 (away fans: 74) Harriers win the battle but come out scarred Report: Tonythescout Goals from Jack Lambert and Amari Morgan-Smith set up a fourth round qualifier FA Cup clash with Guiseley AFC for Phil Browns Harriers at the expense of Buxton in a tempestuous game under the lights at Aggborough. Changes were made again as Joe Foulkes, Luke Summerfield, Caleb Richards, Amari Morgan-Smith and Tope Obadeyi came into the starting eleven. There was no place for Maz Kouhyar in the squad although Ashley Hemmings was included following his omission from Saturdays squad at Buxton. Harriers had the first chance of the game on two
FA Cup 3rd qualifying round Venue: Silverlands Date: 28-09-24 Buxton FC 1 Harriers 1 Att: 806 (away fans: 150) Harriers taken to a replay at Buxton Report: Phil Lench The Harriers made hard work of earning a replay in this FA Cup 3rd qualifying round game at Buxton FC this afternoon, Starting with a much changed side, that included new signing Kam Kandola getting his debut, we struggled to make a breakthrough on their plastic pitch and at times looked wary of it and also seemed unable to cope with the fast surface. It took a well taken goal from another newish signing, Harry Ibbitson, to equalise their opening goal from Kieran Burton a few minutes earlier. It wasn’t until
Venue: Aggborough Date: 21-09-24 Harriers 0 Alfreton Town 1 Att: 2380 (away fans: 47) Harriers taste a first home defeat of the season Report: Phil Lench The Harriers fell to their first home defeat of the season and you damn well knew it would be Alfreton Town didn’t you? In a game that, at times, was frustrating to watch we spurned a handful of chances to open the scoring in both halves of the game and that was mainly down to Ashley Hemmings possibly trying a little too hard and not composing himself first. In the first half he broke clear and, one on one with George Willis, he opted to fire straight at him rather than round him to
FA Cup 2nd qualifying round Venue: Aggborough Date: 14-09-24 Harriers 2 Leek Town 1 Att: 1452 (away fans: 47) Harriers scrape through in the Cup Report: Phil Lench The Harriers just about scraped through into the next round of this seasons FA Cup thanks to a late, late winner from Amari Morgan-Smith. AMS had scored earlier in the game to draw us level after we had huffed and puffed to come back from Leek Towns opening goal in the first half and that was a relief when it went in but no more so than the winning goal when a replay back in Staffordshire looked very likely. We had gone with a slightly changed line-up at the start of the
Venue: Victory Park Date: 07-09-24 Chorley FC 2 Harriers 1 Att: 1549 (away fans: 150) Harriers fail on their travels once again Report: Phil Lench Three weekend away games and we’ve lost every single one of them and, to be honest, I just can’t see how we’ve managed that. In all three games at Warrington Town, Scunthorpe Utd and now Chorley FC we’ve played well enough to win them all but sadly that’s just not happened. Is the reason because we’re a soft touch or is it because we’re not a physical side? Or is it because we simply seem to be a first half team away from home. Again today we started off playing some superb football and in
Venue: Aggborough Date: 03-09-24 Harriers 1 Chester FC 1 Att: 2554 (away fans: 370) Ash Hemmings sent off in Chester draw Report: Phil Lench The Harriers dropped their first home points of the season against Chester FC tonight in yet another great game. A game too good for this level and that’s down to the experience and nous that Phil Brown brings to the team. With two central defenders – Paul Downing and Alex Penny – out injured he had to quickly restructure the team to compensate. He went with just the one recogniseable option in Reiss McNally and dropped the use of wingers to involve defenders Caleb Richards and Joe Foulkes in that role instead. It worked because Chester
Venue: Glanford Park Date: 30-08-24 Scunthorpe Utd 2 Harriers 0 Att: 4967 (away fans: 239) A game of high quality Report: Phil Lench The Harriers came away from Scunthorpe Utd this evening with a second defeat of the season when they went down 2-0 at Glanford Park. In a game of end to end action it was truly a game of high quality for both sets of fans and those of a neutral stance. In fact it was a game well above non-league standard and many in League Two as well. After a fairly even first half, the Iron broke clear of the injury-hit visitors in the second period and sealed their win thanks to two goals by the hour
Venue: Aggborough Date: 26-08-24 Harriers 4 Oxford City 0 Att: 2546 (away fans: 42) Harriers are back to winning ways Report: Phil Lench The Harriers quickly got back to winning ways against Oxford City following the defeat away at Warrington Town two days ago. And what a way to do so too. Taking a 3-0 lead into the break was what all the fans wanted to see after such a good start to the season and that’s just what we got. A second goal running for Ben Beresford was the start, a third goal for Maz Kouhyar on the stroke of halftime was sandwiched by Ashley Hemmings third goal of the season. The best was saved for the second half
Venue: Cantilever Park Date: 24-08-24 Warrington Town 2 Harriers 1 Att: 1107 (away fans: 250) Harriers fall to the first defeat of the season at Warrington Town The Harriers fell to their first defeat of the season at Warrington Town today after going into the lead after five minutes. A first goal for Ben Beresford, from a corner, opened the scoring for us but following that we failed to push on and allowed the hosts too much space on the ball until the inevitable happened just before the break when they drew level through Matthew McDonald. A second goal for Town was added midway through the second half and we still failed to raise our game until it was almost
Venue: Aggborough Date: 20-08-24 Harriers 1 Brackley Town 0 Att: 2382 (away fans: 70) Harriers dominant but still only get a single goal Report: Phil Lench This was the first time that we had locked horns with Brackley Town since that memorable sunny day in May 2023 that saw the Harriers make their return to the National League. It was thanks to Ashley Hemmings goals that day and, again, last night it was thanks to our number ten that we were victorious once again. The only drawbacks are that we are no longer in the National League and also that it was our only goal of the game. Games against Brackley have never been of the high scoring variety but
Venue: Aggborough Date: 17-08-24 Harriers 3 Radcliffe FC 0 Att: 2504 (away fans: 56) The floodgates opened as Harriers run riot Report: Phil Lench A five minute spell of scoring put paid the leagues new boys, Radcliffe FC’s, hopes as the floodgates opened following Zak Browns first goal of the season, then two minutes later Max Kouhyars’ second goal of the campaign to be finished off by Ashley Hemmings with his first goal of the season. We were hoping for more but the team seemed satisfied with that and controlled the remainder of the game with just a brief response late on that forced Christian Dibble into action for the first time in the game. In our first home game
Venue: Blackwell Meadows Date: 10-08-24 Darlington FC 1 Harriers 2 Att: 1817 (away fans: 150) Harriers get their first aMAZing win of the season Report: Phil Lench The Harriers got their season off to a great start with three well earned points at Darlington FC thanks to a match winning performance from the amazing ‘MAZ’ Kouhyar. His cross for Amari Morgan-Smiths opening goal was class in itself and then followed up with a just as classy goal of his own towards the end of the game sealed the points for the Reds. The Quakers responded late on with a well taken Will Hatfield freekick to inspire them to a mini rally but it was all too late for them. On