31-10-20 – Report – Kidderminster Harriers 2 Blyth Spartans 0

The Harriers get their third win in a row

Report: Harriershane

The Harriers welcomed winless Blyth Spartans to Aggborough today with an unchanged side named by Russ Penn, meaning that Ethan Freemantle continued up front in the absence of Amari Morgan-Smith who was serving the final day of his two match suspension.

For Spartans the former Gateshead man Liam Agnew failed to win his battle with injury in one of two changes for Michael Nelson’s men. New signing Michael Cain made his debut in place of Agnew.

The game’s first sight of goal went to the visitors, who worked the ball into a promising area on the right hand side for Connor Thomson to strike straight at Luke Simpson. Harriers began to settle down after that effort though and their composure was almost rewarded when Sam Austin saw his strike beaten away by Brad Young in the Spartans goal. Moments later Kris Thackray threw himself at Ashley Hemmings to deny the winger an effort at goal before Young dived to pull off a cracking double save, denying Lewis Montrose from a header and then Hemmings from close range.

The pressure would eventually tell and unsurprisingly it was Hemmings to break the deadlock. Omari Sterling-James received the ball wide on the left and drove at the Blyth backline. With the attention of three defenders firmly on him, he opted to cut inside where the ball popped through to Hemmings who was lurking with intent at the back post to roll in his third of the season.

Following the goal the game settled down with just a frenetic few moments which was not helped by the visitors’ penchant for fouling and the seemingly excessive time that the ball spent out of play, stifling any creativity that threatened to show itself.

Michael Cain had a skewed ambitious effort on the half hour mark before Ethan Freemantle probably should have doubled Harriers’ lead as we approached the break; unfortunately the Harriers man delayed his effort slightly too long, narrowing the angle of his shot that skewed wide at the near post.

HT: 1 – 0

The Harriers opened the second half testing Young again with Hemmings trying from range before the game petered out once more.

Approaching the hour mark one felt that Harriers would require a second goal and fortunately it came in the form of, we think, Max Taylor, for his maiden senior goal. A free kick from wide was swung in deep where the ball was bundled over the line. Nobody really celebrated, apart from Montrose rather sheepishly, but with Taylor the closest to the ball the goal was credited to him at the time of writing.

To their credit,Blyth managed to muster a couple of shots on goal, Callum Guy testing his luck before Aaron Cunningham headed tamely at Luke Simpson. Sterling saw a free kick drop wide, before the ball was in the back of the net again, but Hemmings was adjudged to have been in an offside position and the goal was chalked off.

The Harriers again went close to a third, with Keith Lowe nodding just over from Sterling’s dangerous corner.

With the visitors’ deflated amid impending defeat, and no real necessity for Harriers to pour forward, the game meandered to a conclusion that was punctuated only by Thackray’s header onto the woodwork from a Cain cross.

In truth, this was a poor game with very few clear cut chances but, from a Harriers perspective, it’s a second consecutive clean sheet and a third win from the last three games. They now face an anxious wait to see if the Guiseley team member who was required to take a Covid-19 test has tested positive or not. If they have then next Saturday’s game there will be postponed.

There is also the renewed lockdown to worry about too and if all sport at our level will be stopped once again. Except for the Premier League no doubt.

FT: 2 – 0

Goals for Harriers: Hemmings 12, Taylor 57

The Harriers Online MotM is: Lewis Montrose

Talk about the game here

Latest table and stats here

Harriers	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Simpson
Penny
Richards
Taylor
Lowe
Montrose
Austin
Prosser
Freemantle			58
Hemmings			81
Sterling-James			88
Subs:
Palmer
Maxwell			81
Kellermann			58
Arthur			88
Moyo
Blyth Spartans	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Young
Sakellaropoulos
Thackray
Elsdon
Cunningham
Cain
Thompson
Heslop
Gbolahan			73
Griffiths			66
Guy			73
Subs:
Pearson
Russell			66
McKeown			73
Charlton
Katsamagkas			73
Referee:
Mr David McNamara
Preston