06-04-23. Match preview Vs Buxton FC

Preview: Phil Lench

We move into the Easter weekend with the first game tomorrow, Good Friday, coming up against Buxton FC. This is their first season at this level and we met them last September at their ground high in the Derbyshire hills where we came away with a 1-1 draw thanks to the now departed Yusifu Ceesay. It was in the first half of that game that we lost three players to injury with Joe Foulkes, Nathaniel Knight-Percival and Ethan Freemantle all getting long term injuries.

Neither NKP or Freemantle will be available to us tomorrow with the former serving the final game of his four game suspension while Ethan will be out with a facial injury for the remainder of the season. We do have Jack Tolley back home from his loan spell at Bromsgrove Sporting where he bagged three goals in his twenty two games for them. Good experience for the lad and he must be hoping to play some part tomorrow.

Still missing is Joe McGlynn with his hip injury but the news about him from both the Harriers and Burnley has been totally zero. Also out is another player with a mystery injury in Reiss McNally but he could be fit for the AFC Fylde game on Monday along with Knight-Percival.

Last Saturday something very unusual happened when we actually picked up a rare three points at Farsley Celtic. An early goal from Krystian Pearce, via a Joe Leesley corner, set us up nicely but we failed to score again, due to the poor pitch condition and the ongoing lack of a decent striker, and held on to the three points even though the home side bombarded our goal for the final ten minutes of the game. That was our only win in our last eleven games.

Buxton are going really well this season and sit on the edge of the play-offs at this moment in time and unbeaten in fourteen games, their last defeat coming, ironically at Farsley in January. The Bucks are at the top of the form table and lie fifth in the away for table so it looks likely we’ll be in for a tough test of a game.

Jake Moult is the only one playing for them with any link to the Harriers. He was with us on loan from Plymouth Argyle back in the Spring of 2008 but he never played a game for us. They have no known injuries in their camp.

We all know that we’ll have to build on that rare win the other day but we also know that we have a shockingly poor strikeforce made weaker now with the absence of Freemantle. Someone needs to step up to the plate tomorrow and give us a second win in a week. Can it be done?

Photo © KHFC

Teams:

Harriers from:

Palmer, Dibble, Penny, Richards, Morrison, Foulkes, Leak, McNally, Pearce, Byrne, Leesley, Z Brown, Lissimore, Owen-Evans, Hall, Martin, Bearne, Hemmings, Tolley, Morgan-Smith.

Buxton FC from:

Richardson, Bacon, Granite, Conway, Brisley, Poole, Hull, C Brown, Dawson, Meikle, Clarke, Elliott, Moult, Kirby, Barnett, McCourt, Osborne, Jackson, Ackroyd, Sherwood, De Girolamo, Boden, Wood.

Referee: Mr Niall Smith. Rugeley

Talk about the game here

Links to Buxton FC websites here

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