24-01-22 – Preview – Kettering Town Vs Kidderminster Harriers

Preview: Phil Lench

This could turn out to be an interesting game tomorrow evening when Kettering Town play their first game under their new manager, Ian Culverhouse, and we’ll be fully expecting the new manager bounce.

On Friday evening their former manager, Paul Cox, left the club at tea time and by eight thirty he was at Boston Utd having his photo taken when he was announced as their new manager. Coxy must have a fast car. On Saturday the Kettering assistant manager, Luke Graham, took charge of their game at Bradford Park Avenue, a game that they lost, and by lunchtime the following day Culverhouse was given the hot seat.

It all seems a little bit too co-incidental.

At Bradford they came back against ten men to equalise in the dying seconds of normal time only for BPA to go and grab the winner well into injury time. Their season hasn’t been too bad really and they’ve picked up a good number of wins to put themselves into eleventh place in the table but twelve points behind us before tomorrow evenings game.

Shane has more information than you can shake a stick at below.

We come into the game on the back of an excellent home win against York City on Saturday. A game that was worthy of more than the three goals we did score against a shocking City side. Goals from our scoring triumvirate of Amari Morgan-Smith, Omari Sterling-James and Sam Austin bought their personal goal tallies up to eight, six and ten respectively. It’s good to see them all scoring freely but we’d still like to see more please.

There were two debuts in the game with Devonte Redmond having waited two weeks for his while Matt Preston started the day after he signed for us on loan from Solihull Moors. They both did well with Preston looking like a young Mark Creighton. He had come in for the injured Nathan Cameron and his better mobility makes him a better choice as cover.

As well as Cameron out we were also without Ethan Freemantle on Saturday following the hamstring tweak that he picked up early doors at Hereford FC a week ago. He’s expected to be out for a couple of weeks but could possibly miss out on the West Ham Utd game February 5th. We may see at least two others out being rested during this run of none stop games.

With that new manager in place Kettering are going to be up for it and we have to be ready for that. There should also be a good backing of Harriers fans there too and they’ll be behind the team, urging them on, from the start.

Photo © KHFC

Teams:

Harriers from:

Simpson, Emery, Richards, Cameron, Foulkes, Moyo, Penny, Preston, Bajrami, Lowe, Austin, Redmond, Montrose, Carrington, Martin, Freemantle, Bastable, Tolley, Hemmings, Morgan-Smith, White, Sterling-James, Dinanga.

Kettering Town from:

J Smith, Davies, Brown, C Smith, Barratt, Johnson, Empson, Joshua, Stohrer, Ward, Cooper, Sharpe, Kennedy, Neal, Sheriff, Calder, Powell, Sherriff, Milovanovic, Stones, Crawford, Perry, Bailey-Nicholls, Conlan, Herbert.

Referee: Mr Greg Rollason. Worcester

Shanes Opposition Stats Pack:

At home in the league: (P9, W4, D3, L2) BPA 1-0, Farsley 1-1, Fylde 1-1, Chester 0-0, Darlington 1-3, Blyth 4-0, Boston 2-3, Brackley 3-1, Curzon 3-0.

Goals (all competitions): Powell – 13, Perry – 4, Ofosu – 4, Kennedy – 4, Crawford – 4, Sherriff – 3, Stones – 2, McDonagh – 2, Cooper – 2,  Brown – 2, Smith – 1, Neal – 1.

Claudio Ofosu has recently been transferred to Spennymoor whilst Harrison Neal was on loan from Sheffield Utd and Gerry McDonagh was on loan from Halifax. Neal has been sent back out on loan, this time to National League Southend.

Perennial pain in the arse, Kyle Perry, joined Nuneaton on 1/1/22 on a dual registration deal so that’s one less lump to deal with, one would imagine.

Of course it’s hard to say where The Poppies will be at now after Paul Cox upped sticks and made the Pilgrimage up to Boston on Friday night, if you pardon the pun. Former defender Luke Graham was in interim charge for one game but on Sunday the former Kings Lynn manager, Ian Culverhouse was appointed. It all seems to have taken place conveniently quickly and at the time of writing Cox hasn’t raided his old side yet so the true impact of his departure is yet to be measured.

The post-Cox era started on Saturday with a 2-1 defeat up at 10 man BPA, after DeCarrey Sherriff had equalised with a minute to go only for Bradford to win the game in added on time.

Any other business? They’ve won back to back games once (Leamington away, 0-4, Brackley home 3-1) and they’ve drawn back to back games once (Chester home 0-0, Buxton home FA Cup 2-2). Their worst losing streak in all comps this season is 3 (Gloucester 3-0 away in the FA Trophy, Hereford 3-0 away, Boston 2-3 home).

In all competitions they have failed to score on only 4 occasions. They have kept 9 clean sheets. A good return, as Paul Cox had turned Latimer Park into a fortress, with notable results against Fylde and Brackley.

The pitch seems to have come in for criticism especially after the Curzon victory – however the extent to which this was just sour grapes is unknown. They sit 11th, and will provide a stern test. It will be a Paul Cox team, without Cox.

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

Goalkeepers: Rhys Davies (P15, conceded 21, Faced 3 penalties with none saved), Jackson Smith (P13, conceded 16. Faced 2 penalties with none saved).

Defence: Connor Barrett (P24), Alex Brown (P17, 2 goals), David Chapman (P0, dual registration with Eastwood), Ed Cook (P0, dual registration with Stamford), George Cooper (P6, 2 goals. On loan from Mansfield), Jack Empson (P0), Connor Johnson (P23, 1 red card), Kevin Joshua (P2. On loan from WBA), Rhys Sharpe (P7), Chris Smith (P21, 1 goal), Gary Stohrer (P16), Tom Unwin (P3, dual registration with Coalville) Luke Ward (P13).

Midfield: Riccardo Calder (P9), Jordon Crawford (P15, 4 goals), Reece Giles (P0, on loan at Leicester Nirvana), Connor Kennedy (P19, 4 goals), Saul Milovanovic (P1).

Attack: Khaellem Bailey-Nicholls (P0, could be on dual registration with Redditch but I’m personally unsure about this, wasn’t named when I saw Redditch v Stourbridge 1/1/22), Michael Conlan (P2), George Herbert (P0), Kyle Perry (P15, 4 goals. Dual registration with Nuneaton), Callum Powell (P26, 13 goals. Two of those from penalties), DeCarrey Sherriff (P12, 3 goals), Isaac Stones (P16, 2 goals), Gerry McDonagh (P5, 2 goals. Was on loan from Halifax).

Talk about the game here

Links to Kettering Town websites here

Find Pubs around Kidderminster here