26-02-19 – Report – Ashton Utd 0 Kidderminster Harriers 1

Billy Daniels wins it for the Harriers

Report: Phil Lench

The Harriers made it up to the fans at Ashton Utd this evening with a first goal for Billy Daniels that gave us all three points. We faced yet another onslaught at the end similar to the one three days ago at Blyth Spartans that saw us concede two goals at the end of the game to drop two points for us. A penalty shout in the last minute following a shove on an Ashton player was turned down and the Harriers defence had to be tough to survive a barrage from Ashton.

We started the game with Liam McAlinden back in the side at the expense of Nick Clayton-Phillips who took a bad knock at Blyth. He’ll now be facing a scan in the next few days to see what the damage was. Daniels also came back in to replace Milan Butterfield who is now on his Bermudian international duty.

Following a quiet start to the game it was the home side that made the early running with Sam Sheridan sending in a corner that took a deflection and headed towards goal but Joel Taylor managed to get his head in the way and put it out for another corner. Liam Goulding struck a volley from the edge of the area but the Harriers keeper, Brandon Hall, dealt with it easily. 

On ten minutes the Harriers woke up and McAlinden supplied Fraser Horsfall but the defenders downward header didn’t achieve the same result as it did at Blyth on Saturday. Again another cross came in from McAlinden for Joe Ironside but the frontrunner couldn’t stick a foot out quickly enough. Ironside then saw his header from a Sam Austin corner just loop over George McMahons goal.

End to end action saw the attention switch to the other end with two more volleys from Ashton forwards. The second of which from Connor Dimaio was the best chance of the evening so far as it powered past Hall but then hit the upright.

Back to the other end now and chances again came thick and fast with Ed Williams, McAlinden (three times) and Ashley Chambers all going close to grabbing the all important first goal. But it never came.

Four minutes to the end of the first half and, but for a great save from Hall, Ashton should have gone in with a vital lead. A neat pass back in the area to Ryan Jennings ended with him striking the ball towards the inside of the post but somehow Brandon Hall flung himself across goal and pushed the ball out for a fruitless corner.

HT: 0 – 0

The second half started a little more quietly than the first had ended with just two slim chances for the home side to score but didn’t really worry us too much. The game was beginning to drift into a midfield battle but that’s when things can suddenly happen.

Just after the hour mark we got the goal we were hoping for and it came as something out of the blue. With nothing seemingly on Billy Daniels had got the ball and would normally have been looking for someone to pass it too but this time he saw his chance and let fly a shot that soared goalwards from twenty yards out and left McMahon stranded on his line as the ball flew past him.

It’s usually at this point in a game that we begin to sit back a bit and that’s just what happened. We began to allow Ashton back into the game and Ryan Jennings again went close with yet another volley that got blocked on the line.

Following that close call we had a good chance of doubling our tally for the evening when Ash Chambers struck a shot goalwards that dipped towards the goal at the last second but it was still too high and went just over the bar.

A load of half chances followed for both sides and with time drifting away for them the home side began to realise and upped their game. The new found energy took us by surprise and we began to panic defensively with it culminating in a challenge from Austin on Liam Thomsett in the area that saw the Ashton man go to ground and the rest of his team clamouring for a penalty. The referee turned their appeals away and then sent their manager, Jody Banim, to the stands for abusive language to the linesman.

The home side pressed us for the remaining few minutes but we somehow stood firm and the whistle was finally blown on three points for us and a small climb to ninth place in the table. On Saturday we face almost relegated Nuneaton Borough at home and three, what should be routine, points then could see us climb a little higher.

FT: 0 – 1

Goal for Harriers: Daniels 63

Talk about the game here

Latest table and stats here

Ashton Utd	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
McMahon
Crowley
Regan
Chalmers
Ashworth
Goulding
Jennings			77
Sheridan
Hobson			72
Dimaio
Mantack
Subs:
Kay
Roberts
Thomsett			77
Swaby-Neavin
Reed			72
Harriers	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Hall
Austin
Taylor
Penn
Horsfall
Johnson
McAlinden
Daniels
Ironside
Chambers
Williams
Subs:
Palmer
Higginson
Stratford
Richards
Heaton
Referee:
Aaron Bannister
Wakefield