28-01-22 – Preview – Kidderminster Harriers Vs Gloucester City

Preview: Phil Lench

Struggling Gloucester City are at Aggborough tomorrow afternoon for this return of a game that we won 3-1 down at their place in November. The goals that evening came from Ashley Hemmings, Alex Penny and Sam Austin after we had gone into the break trailing to an Oliver Hulbert first half goal. The game was probably one of the best away wins of the season.

Since then City have been in dire form and are counting themselves lucky that there are worse teams below them in the table with Farsley Celtic and AFC Telford Utd in equally dire form. Saying that Telford did slam five past Darlington FC last weekend so that’s made Gloucesters position even more precarious. Different to last seasons high flying team that finished the cut short and voided table in first place.

Last Saturday they lost 1-0 at home to Southport and in midweek they went down 2-1 at Hereford FC. At the same time we were easily beating York City 3-0 and on Tuesday night a, not so easy, game at Kettering Town ended 1-0 in our favour.

In an effort to stop the slide they have signed the former Mansfield Town striker Matt Green (I’m sure he was linked with us once) and loaned in a defender from Newport County, Louis Hall. They’ll be without the injured Matt McClure and their star signing at the start of the season, Jordan Young, has been sent out on loan to Chippenham Town.

For the Harriers, with all of these Saturday/Tuesday games, it was obvious that the toll of injuries/niggles would begin to mount and so it is. Already we have Nathan Cameron and Ethan Freemantle out for a while and then we had Austin and Penny missing for the Kettering game. To top it off Keziah Martin then picked up a bad injury during the game and could miss the West Ham game next Saturday. To this end Kai Lissimore was re-called next day from his loan at Tamworth.

Hopefully some of those will be back for tomorrow and we can crack on and pick up another three points.

Teams:

Harriers from:

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

Gloucester City from:

Cole, Armstrong, Nugent, Gerring, Harrison, Thompson, Leadbitter, Robert, Dawson, Tomlinson, O’Sullivan, Sheaf, Noel-Williams, Mensah, King, Hulbert, Green, Hall

Referee: Mr Oliver Mackey. Leicester

Shanes Opposition Stats Pack:

Away from home in the league: (P8 W1 D2 L5) Fylde 1-0, Chester 3-2, Brackley 2-0, Darlington 2-2, Alfreton 1-1, Leamington 0-1, Blyth 2-0, Hereford 2-1

Goals (all competitions): 8 – Hulbert, 4 – McClure, 4 – King, 2 – Young, 1 – Thompson, 1 – Sheaf, 1 – Robert, 1 – O’Sullivan, 1 – Leadbitter, 1 -Dawson, 1 – Green, 1 – Chambers-Parillon, 1 – Gerring

The streaks (league only):

Games since last win – 4

Games since last away win – 2

Games since last draw – 3

Games since last away draw – 3

Games since last defeat – 0

Games since last away defeat – 0

Games since last clean sheet – 3

Games since last away clean sheet – 2

Current streak: 3 losses in a row

They’ve announced that they are going to ditch their full time budget, reverting back to a hybrid model next season with a reduced budget. The gamble last season evidently hasn’t paid off and now the belts need tightening.

Harriers fans may remember the free kick last season that secured a 3-2 win for The Tigers, the scorer was Jordan Young but he’s out of favour – currently out on loan at Chippenham Town. It’s rumoured that Dejon Noel-Williams has a foot in the exit door, but nothing has been publicly announced as of Friday evening. Earlier this season, Ollie Hulbert’s goal gave them the lead, but his 9 goals came in the span of 7 games and has not scored since December 4th.

Matt Green needs no introduction, the well-travelled striker was the main man as Mansfield pipped us to the Conference title a decade ago.

Matt McClure picked up a knock against Boston at the start of January which has kept him out since that game. He was due to get it injected but that was cancelled in the week according to Lee Mansell’s preview. Mansell also confirmed that midfielder Fabien Robert picked up a suspected concussion in Tuesday nights defeat at Hereford, so will miss the next couple of weeks as per concussion protocol. Defender Tom Harrison picked up an injury on Boxing Day and hasn’t featured since.

In terms of bans, Kevin Dawson got sent off last Saturday and his ban has now kicked in, meaning he won’t feature at Aggborough.

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

Goalkeepers: Liam Armstrong (P4, conceded 14), Alex Avenell (P0), Jake Cole (P23, conceded 26, saved 1 out of 1 penalties).

Defence: Ben Gerring: (P10, 1 goal 1 red card), Louis Hall (loan from Newport), (P0) Tom Harrison (P15 – Injured since Boxing Day), Jack Hill (P1), Jack James (P0), Corey Jordan (P3), Daniel Leadbitter (P26, 1 goal), Ben Nugent (P17, 1 red card), Jack Spark (P1), Jordon Thompson (P12, 1 goal, 1 red card).

Midfield: Lee Cook (P1), Kevin Dawson (P25, 1 goal, 1 red card – sent off vs Southport 22nd Jan. Banned for this game), Lewis Derrick (P1), Kian Gardiner (P1), Joe Jeremiah (P2), Lee Mansell (P0), Tommy O’Sullivan (P16, 1 goal), Fabien Robert (P17, 1 goal, 1 red card), Max Sheaf (P19, 1 goal), Lucas Tomlinson (P13, on loan from Bristol Rovers), Jordan Young (P16, 2 goals, out on loan at Chippenham Town).

Attack: Matt Green (P1 1 goal), Ollie Hulbert (P15, 9 goals, on loan from Bristol Rovers), Danny King (P15, 4 goals) Matt McClure (P17, 4 goals, 1 red card), Bernard Mensah (P18), Dejon Noel-Williams (P9).

Talk about the game here

Links to Gloucester City websites here

Find Pubs around Kidderminster here