27-04-19 – Report – Kidderminster Harriers 1 Guiseley AFC 2

In the end we went out with a whimper

Report: Phil Lench

The Harriers final game of the season crumbled away just as our season has also crumbled away since last November. Back then we were second in the table and flying but by the end of today’s defeat at home to Guiseley AFC we had ended up in tenth place and if it hadn’t been for those early results we could have easily been ensconced in the middle of the table or narrowly avoiding relegation.

How bad it’s all become was evident today when some of the players out there for us showed a total lack of endeavour and interest while the team that have just avoided relegation never really got out of second gear and looked a class better than us. We were lucky to get away with the 2-1 defeat.

Before the game we had the obligatory honours awards with Joe Ironside picking up two of them. Fair play to the lad having to accept the awards from Colin Gordon – the man who had sent him out on a disastrous loan for three months of the season. 

In very windy and cold conditions it was always going to be a hard game in terms of ball control but, as at Southport last week, some of our passing and running was atrocious and most of the time the ball was being played back to Tom Palmer, in the Harriers goal. When we did get the ball in front of goal we looked clueless once again and, to be honest, many fans would have been tempted to walk out in the first twenty minutes of the game.

It did pick up after that but once we managed to get on top of our game it bit us in the bum big time. Jaiden White, on his full debut, had been the only bright spark in a dour game but was getting very little support from the shockingly poor referee.

Being pulled from pillar to post by blokes the twice the size of you must have been intimidating for the lad and then when he was scythed down in an off the ball incident by George Cantrill without the ref showing the slightest bit of interest must have been galling to then chase a defenders ball – where were they? – into the area and getting a foot on the ball but also just catching Cantrill and then getting booked for it must have been crushing.

The ref gave them the soft penalty that Andy Halls converted to give them an undeserved lead just before the break.

HT: 0 – 1

After the break we bought on Declan Weeks for Russ Penn and we looked better in midfield for the change but still it wasn’t going very well for us. Guiseley were prepared to soak up what little we could muster and at the same stroke waste as much time as they could. We found it hard to get any reward in front of goal and our only effort of note came from a Joe Ironside effort that went just wide of the upright ten minutes into the half.

The visitors were still the more enterprising in front of goal and their second came due to our defensive error and shoddy goalkeeping from Tom Palmer. Fraser Horsfall failed to clear a ball correctly and it fell to a Guiseley player who then fed his team mate Jack Dyche with the ball just yards from Palmer. Dyche lifted the ball high over Palmer and at first it seemed that the rookie keeper – probably our first choice for next season – had the ball in his grasp but the fumbled it over his head and into the net.

That was a signal for quite a few Harriers fans to walk out of Aggborough twenty minutes before the end. A sight I have never seen before but must speak volumes.

They could have had a third in the net a minute later from the same player when he hit the foot of the post with a shot from distance that had Palmer a mere spectator as it cannoned away. Thankfully, before it got any worse, we too were handed a penalty when substitute Kane Richards was bundled over in the area. Ironside stepped up to convert for his eighth goal in seven games, three of which have come from the spot.

In amongst the time wasting the Lions still found time to try and increase their lead. One chance towards the end gave Palmer the chance to make amends when, again, a defensive error allowed Lewis Archer through to a one on one with the keeper but indecision allowed Palmer to get a very good block in and deflect the ball away for a throw in. 

Without much further excitement our season came to a disappointing end and, as twenty minutes before, very few of the crowd stayed behind to applaud the team at the end of this total let down of a season. To finish this low again must not be repeated next season.

Will we see many of this squad come August 3rd? Probably not with only a few signed up already and even that is no barrier to them wanting to try their luck elsewhere. Thing is are any of them good enough to walk out on a contract to a club that’s prepared to pay good money for them?

Just time for a couple of ‘back slaps’. Well done to Stockport County for winning the title and also to Harriershane for doing so many great match reports for this website all season long.

FT: 1 – 2

Goal for Harriers: Ironside 78 (pen)

Goals for Guiseley AFC: Halls 44 (pen), Dyche 67

The Harriers Online MotM is: Jaiden White

Talk about the game here

Latest table and stats here

Harriers	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Palmer
Austin
McAlinden
Penn			46
Horsfall
J Heaton
White			68
Butterfield
Ironside
Chambers
Williams
Subs:
Hall
Richards			68
Weeks			46
Higginson
Stratford
Guiseley AFC	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Dewhurst
Moyo
Cantrill
Halls
Digie
Thornton			77
Felix			72
Purver
Dyche
James
Hatfield
Subs:
N Heaton
Starcenko
Barkers			77
Archer			72
Morrison
Referee:
Mr Robert Massey-Ellis
Coventry