21-11-22. Match preview Vs AFC Telford Utd

Preview: Phil Lench

With the Harriers back on track following the FA Trophy win at St Albans FC on Saturday now seems as good a time as any to play our nearest neighbours AFC Telford Utd. Sadly they’re at the very foot of the table but also, sadly for us, we always find it difficult to beat a struggling side and with just the one win on opening day at home to Chorley FC they really are struggling.

Even with the recent arrival of a new manager, the former Brackley Town boss Kevin Wilkin, they still haven’t got their act together in the league. They did win in the trophy on Saturday though knocking two past Kings Langley just a stones throw from where we were in St Albans. At the end of the day even though Telford are looking odds on for relegation we don’t want to lose out on possibly playing against them next season so we have to hope that Wilkin can work some magic at rescue them from Wednesday onwards.

On Saturday we saw two new faces make their debut for us with Tom Billson in goal and Joe Leesley running the midfield although he’s primarily a wide player. Leesley especially made one heck of a difference in giving us a more attacking purpose and that resulted in Amari Morgan-Smith at last getting off the mark with his first goal of the season.

Two more newbies should get a start at the Bucks Head tomorrow evening as we’re yet to see defender Reiss McNally or midfielder Paddy McLaughlin. McNally was probably bought in to replace the mistake ridden Krystian Pearce but he had a cracking game on Saturday and Russ Penn now has a hard decision to make. Paddy should slip into the number six spot if Shane Byrne isn’t fit yet.

Byrne injured his back a few weeks ago and, although playing for twenty minutes at Boston Utd, it still wasn’t right so he’s been given longer to get sorted. Alex Penny is still out and could be until January and the same goes for Nathaniel Knight-Percival who has had a setback in his return from injury so that could be another place that McLaughlin could step into. We’ll see.

We’ll be without Nathan Lowe after he left us on loan to Macclesfield FC earlier today. Gone until January it’s likely that’ll be extended with a view to a permanent move.

Telfords win at Kings Langley finally came in the ninety sixth minute when Matt Brown turned the ball home deep into injury time after trailing 1-0 at the start. They had a setback in the game when striker Jason Oswell dislocated his shoulder in his first game back from a long term injury so it’s doubtful if he’ll be playing against us. Ex Harrier Nathan Blissett will be standing by to take his place though.  

They’ll also be without Kai Williams who is still recovering from a foot injury from last January. He’s back in training now but it’s too early for a return. 

Now all we need is for this rain to stop because we all know how bad their pitch can be even now that they have supposedly improved the drainage. Still it’s not far to go for the re-arranged game.

Teams:

Harriers from:

Billson, Palmer, Emery, Penny, Richards, Starbuck, Knight-Percival, Foulkes, McNally, Pearce, Margetson, Leak, Byrne, Z Brown, Owen-Evans, Leesley, McLaughlin, Rogers, Martin, Freemantle, Bearne, Hemmings, Morgan-Smith, Ceesay.

AFC Telford Utd from:

Campbell, Gray, Pilling, Craig, Allen, Faal, Bood, M Brown, Sloane, Senior, Piggott, Flowers, C Baker, Nolan, Oswell, Moore, Evans, Ekpolo, Green, Blissett, Daniels, Knowles, L Baker, McLintock, Jae Chong, Carson.

Referee: Mr Richard Holmes. Preston

Talk about the game here

Links to AFC Telford Utd websites here

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