24-10-22. Match preview Vs Chorley FC

Preview: Phil Lench

Russ Penn is going to have to work very hard to get his troops mindset back into the right place if he has any hope of beating Chorley FC tomorrow evening. He’s also going to have to work even harder if he wants the fans back on his side because, at the moment, he’s losing their trust and belief very, very quickly. A Plan B, along with a change of starting lineup, would go a long way to achieving that.

Possibly due to an accumulation of poor results in October on Saturday we witnessed a low point of the season losing at home to Southport. Like Farsley Celtic and AFC Fylde before them they had Penns tactics worked out and punished us. We had no answer and no option to change things around. For the manager if Plan A isn’t working then try Plan A again.

Our main problem is the terrible lack of goals. Again Penn went with Yusifu Ceesay leading the line with Ethan Freemantle some thirty yards behind him at times. Ceesay has shown that unless he can beat a player to the ball with his pace then he isn’t going to score. On Saturday, for the umpteenth time, his first touch just is not there and he fell over the ball with the goal at his mercy.

We need to stick him back out wide where he can do more damage and then start with either Freemantle or Amari Morgan-Smith alongside Jack Bearne in a two up front formation. Just four goals in the five games this month tells its own story and that has to change otherwise we’ll find ourselves lower than the fourteenth place we are now. That’s ten places below the fourth place we were in after our last league win at Kettering Town in September.

Our newest signing, Joe Starbuck, made his debut against Southport and looks like he could be useful once he’s settled in. Then he’ll be gone in a month.

We still have the big list of injuries and I can’t see there being any change to that just yet. Alex Penny, Nathaniel Knight-Percival, Tom Owen-Evans, Joe Foulkes and Jack Tolley will all miss out once again.

Our visitors tomorrow, Chorley, are now above us in the table following their 1-1 draw at Peterborough Sports on Saturday. They’re on the same amount of points, eighteen, but have a two goal advantage over us. Like us they find goals to come by having scored sixteen compared to our thirteen this season.

Chances are this is going to be a 0-0 draw then.

Teams:

Harriers from:

Palmer, Emery, Penny, Richards, Starbuck, Knight-Percival, Foulkes, Pearce, Margetson, Lowe, Leak, Lissimore, Byrne, Brown, Owen-Evans, Burgess, Rogers, Martin, Freemantle, Tolley, Bearne, Hemmings, Morgan-Smith, Ceesay.

Chorley FC from:

Urwin, Drench, Barry, Henley, Smith, Wilson, Leather, Challoner, Blakeman, Isherwood, Barnes, Nolan, Whitehouse, Calveley, Tomlinson, Ustabasi, Shenton, Okome, Fenlon, Johnson, Schorah, Sampson, Owens, Hall.

Referee: Mr Darren Rogers. Warrington

Talk about the game here

Links to Chorley FC websites here

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