01-05-23. Match preview Vs Alfreton Town. Play off eliminator

Preview: Phil Lench

As unbelievable as it seems the Harriers will be off to Alfreton Town tomorrow evening for this Play-off Eliminator game earned by beating Kettering Town 3-0 on Saturday afternoon. The result put us into sixth place in the table but, sadly, saw the result confirm relegation for the Poppies.

Alfreton battled out a 1-1 draw with Brackley Town to finish in fifth place but with three goals better than us. Finishing in seventh place were Gloucester City who will be playing at Brackley on Wednesday evening. City somehow came from 3-1 down to finally beat Chorley FC 4-3 in the dying minutes of the game with the former Harrier, Matt Barnes-Homer, scoring two of their goals.

The goals in our game came from Joe Foulkes, Joe Leesley and Ashley Hemmings all in a rip roaring second half, the Leesley goal being his first for us in a Harriers shirt. That win made it six in a row now with thirteen goals scored and just the one conceded and that was a dubious penalty at Southport that should never have been given. With ourselves, and Alfreton, being equally placed in the table there’s a big gap in current form with the Harriers in third place while Alfreton are in tenth (in ten games) and having only won once in their last six games.

We’re also the only team in these play-off stages that are on such a good run of form so a win at North Street could just be the beginning of greater things.

We should be at full strength for the game with just a little worry about Alex Penny after he was withdrawn from the Kettering game after taking a knock. Hopefully it’s just a precaution because after the game he was walking across the pitch without any sign of a limp. Alfreton should be at full strength too after Matt Rhead returned from injury on Saturday.

Unusually we should see a strong following at the game seeing as many people don’t like the ground and tend not to go there. It’s not known yet how many coaches we’re taking but there should be at least two. If the game is drawn at ninety minutes then we’ll have some extra time and if we still can’t be separated then it’ll go to the dreaded penalty shootout.

We just have to hope it doesn’t get to that stage and we can go through in the ninety minutes. COYR!

Teams:

Harriers from:

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

Alfreton Town from:

Willis, Askew, Smith, Lund, Clackstone, Wiley, Preston, O Brown, Teale, Dearle, Branson, Hobson, Cantrill, Butterfield, Ceesay, Salam, Rhead, Southwell, Denton, Thewlis.

Referee: Mr Ben Wyatt. Manchester

Talk about the game here

Links to Alfreton Town websites here

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