21-01-23. Match report Vs Bradford (PA) AFC

It was a foggy day at Aggborough

Report: Phil Lench

In hindsight this game against Bradford (PA) today should never have taken place at all. The main worry for the past few days was how hard would the night time frost be and would it mean a cancellation of the game. For insurance the covers had been put on but no one forecast the fog. It had been present since dawn and had been getting heavier during the day but at 1pm the referee gave to go ahead to go ahead.

Twenty minutes in and the fog became thicker around the ground and by the end the fans couldn’t see more than half the pitch, the keepers were invisible, it was guess work where the corner flags were and it was doubtful that either set of players could see each other let alone the ball. The ref carried on and we got depressed.

Depressed because we still haven’t seen a home win since mid October and the way it’s going it’s going to be next October before we see another one.

The game got underway with a welcome return home to the side for Alex Penny and Nathaniel Knight-Percival following their long time out injured. Alex did come on as a substitute at Dorking Wanderers last weekend but it was the first time he’d played at home since the beginning of October when we played Farsley Celtic. That was his only home appearance this season along with just three appearances away from home.

As at Dorking we started the game like a house on fire. Tom Owen-Evans was at the centre of all that we did, splaying the ball out for others to run onto and not afraid to have a go himself. Ashley Hemmings was doing the same taking players on to put crosses in – some were a little wayward though – and Penny was a rock in defence.

Hemmings saw a couple of shots go wide, Kai Lissimore sent a great strike just over the bar and Jack Bearne had two bites of the offered cherry but both were blocked by the alert Bradford defenders. TOE went wide and NKP saw the BPA keeper, George Sykes-Kenworthy, tip his strike out for a corner with the same player poking the corner towards goal only to see it blocked on the line.

It all looked very promising then the fog worsened and we seemed to lose our rhythm. All this time and the visitors had done very little other than defend for their lives when NKP hesitated at a clearance, quickly passing the ball to the marked Shane Byrne who found himself with nowhere to go and instead lost it to an opposition player who swept the ball into the area. Two defenders and a keeper let the ball past thinking someone else would tidy up but instead it went out to the far side of the area for Jordan Preston to fire home with ease. 

We went to pieces and struggled to get any kind of flow to our game. What chances we did get were both for Bearne to put a cross in with the first to Ethan Freemantle that got fired over and the other for TOE that GSK held easily.

HT: 0 – 1

We were all expecting the lads to get a pep talk from Russ Penn at the break but if they had done then we would never have known. We came out into the thicker fog and looked a mere shadow of the team that we had seen in the first thirty minutes. Kicking towards our own fans we deserved more.

To be honest it was a game with very few chances. Jack Bearne continued his one man campaign on the Bradford goal with a shot that skimmed the bar and that was it until the first of the changes came. Amari Morgan-Smith came on for Reiss McNally who had been struggling with an injury picked up in the first half while new loan signing Joe McGlynn came on for his home debut in place of the disappointing Freemantle.

It took a while for the magic to begin, any kind of magic would have done, but it finally did seventy odd minutes in when a shot from McGlynn was deflected and found AMS with his back to goal. Belying his ‘advancing years’ he scooped the ball over his head and into the net and draw us level at last. Well, we think he did because we could hardly see it. 

A few minutes later and we all thought it was two as the fans behind the goal began to cheer when the net rippled. The East Stand rose to celebrate but they couldn’t see much either and it was written off as a false alarm.

That was it basically. There might have been other chances for someone to score. There might have been a throw in or two, or a corner, but we’d never know because we couldn’t see anything.

At least on the basis of what we did see it was a fair result for both sides but it wasn’t the long overdue win that we had been hoping for. Hopefully that might come at home to Blyth Spartans a week on Tuesday but don’t raise your hopes too high. 

FT: 1 – 1

Goal for Harriers: Morgan-Smith 73

Goal for Bradford (PA): Preston 31

The Harriers Online MotM is: Tom Owen-Evans

Talk about the game here

Latest table and stats here

Harriers	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Palmer
Penny			87
McNally			60
Knight-Percival
Pearce
Byrne
Owen-Evans
Lissimore
Freemantle			60
Hemmings
Bearne
Subs:
Morgan-Smith			60
Foulkes
Martin
Margetson			87
McGlynn			60
Bradford (PA) AFC	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Kenworthy-Sykes
Odunston
Adewoju
Lancaster
Havern
Fielding
Maroodza
Richman
Blyth			93
Preston			71
Longbottom
Subs:
Hall
Hopper
Church
Johnson			93
Dockerty			71
Referee:
Mr Jonathan Maskrey
Staffordshire