26-11-24. Kings Lynn Town 4 Kidderminster Harriers 0. Match report

Harriers worst game so far this season

Report: Phil Lench

The Harriers turned in what was possibly their worst performance of the season so far at Kings Lynn this evening and I’m sure that it could also be their worst performance for many a year. 

Phil Browns lack of decent squad depth, due to injuries, and a naivety in his tactics proved our undoing as an equally poor Lynn put four goals past Christian Dibble and it could easily have been more. With Maz Kouhyar, Reece Devine, Ben Beresford and Tope Obadeyi injured, Zak Brown suspended and Jack Lambert out in the cold we already had a weakened side to start with but the bench was even weaker.

As for the tactics Phil has just got to accept that playing the ball in and around the back and hoping to suddenly surge forward will never work at this level – we are not Liverpool – and neither will lumping the ball forwards when all else fails. We need to be more direct and get the ball upfield quickly with pace and power. We also need some strikers because, basically, that was the only difference between the two sides this evening. 

Their first goal came from a Josh Hmami free kick that got bundled over the line by the former Tranmere Rovers striker Jonny Margetts. Defensively we were at sixes and sevens and no one seemed able to put a boot behind the ball and clear it away upfield when it was needed. 

The goal woke us up slightly and our only shot on goal came soon after when Amari Morgan-Smith found himself one on one with the rookie keeper Patrick Boyes and missed. The keeper blocking the ball away easily.

Ten minutes later and it was normal service resumed as a series of corners for the home side – too many to count – took place. From one of them the ball was recycled back into the area and Joe Foulkes got a foot to it but then sliced it weakly across goal for Josh McCammon to fire home.

During the first half the referee had been free and easy with his whistle penalising any Harriers player too near a Kings Lynn player diving to the ground. Kam Kandola and Ryley Reynolds had already been caught out but for Kam worse was to follow in the second half. 

It was hoped that back in the dressing room strong words would be heard as Brown tried hard to get his under performing side looking something like the second place team they were supposed to be.

HT: 2 – 0

How wrong could I be? We were worse than in the first half as we looked disjointed and clueless while Lynn couldn’t believe their luck and neither could their forward line as they passed the ball between themselves before teeing up Finlay Barnes to rifle the ball home beyond Dibble. 3-0 up and cruising.

Phil Brown made a change with Kobe Hall coming on for the anonymous Seb Thompson and then came the Kandola incident. Outside the box the ball was played into a Lynn player being shepherded by Kam. He could see himself in trouble so he backed away with his hands in the air just as the player dived to the ground. Out came a second yellow followed by a red and Kam slowly left the field looking for all the world like a man who had been conned, just like the ref.

He’ll now miss the FA Trophy game at AFC Fylde.

The fourth goal came soon after and it was Margetts again for his double. Another corner, another goal with the ball being recycled to Tom Wilson who headed it onwards for Margetts to sweep the ball home.

We were down and out. In fact we’d been down and out all evening. With the game well and truly lost Paul Downing was sent on for some game time in place of Reiss McNally and a few minutes later Noah Rubio came on for the first time this season. Noah looked a bit overawed out there and ran around without any real aim while his team mates just went through the motions. He had our only sight of goal in this half but his shot from outside the area lacked power and also went over the bar.

We should have had another chance when the keeper dropped the ball right in front of AMS but instead of taking the ball past the grounded keeper he opted to play it into the area for the waiting Ashley Hemmings. Ash wanted it to his feet though and he wasn’t prepared to go for it so the covering defender walked away with the ball.

We’ve had this kind of result coming for a while now. Our strong defence has often made up for our lack of firepower but tonight our defence was weak too.

We now have to put this rubbish behind us and move on to the visit of Leamington FC on Saturday. Hopefully we’ll have a few injured players back by then but the elephant in the room will still be there. The lack of a quality striker!

FT: 4 – 0

Goals for Kings Lynn: Margetts 20, 63, McCammon 43, Barnes 53

The Harriers Online MotM is: Joe Foulkes

Talk about the game here

Latest table and stats here

Kings Lynn Town	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Boyes
Crowe			83
Sass			61
McFadden
Taylor
Wilson
Hmami			71
Johnson
Barnes			83
Margetts			90
McCammon
Subs:
Coulson			61
Hughes			71
Williams			83
Walker			90
Crane			83
Harriers	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Dibble
Foulkes
Richards
Kandola
McNally			68
Davis			72
Thompson			55
Reynolds			60
Morgan-Smith
Hemmings
Cadogan
Subs:
Palmer
Downing			68
Foran			60
Hall			55
Rubio			72
Referee:
Mr Ben Tomlinson
Rotherham