| Venue: Silverlake Stadium Date: 23-09-23 Eastleigh FC 2 Harriers 1 Att: 1970 (away fans: 162) |
McDonagh scores against his old club but that was about it
Report: Phil Lench
Two goals from a quick and lethal centre forward was enough to beat the Harriers at Eastleigh today. That CF, Paul McCallum, showed ours how to play the game and how to finish. Along with his team mate Chris Maguire they were the difference between the two sides today and are the kind of players that Russ Penn should be looking at to get us out of this boring mess that we find ourselves in.
Although we took the lead through a Gerry McDonagh earned and taken penalty we did very little else to score. mid way through the second half a defensive mix up between the Spitfires keeper, Joe McDonnell, and a defender almost let Amari Morgan-Smith in but that was it from him.
Our penalty was awarded when McDonagh entered the area chasing a ball and Ludwig Francillette bought him down. Gerry took the spot kick very well sending the keeper diving to his right as the ball arrowed into the centre of the goal. We thought it would have been the kind of start we had all been crying out for but then we just sat back. Job done.
Eastleigh took over the game and it was from a Chris Maguire corner that was aimed perfectly at his team mates head who then, powerfully, sent a rocket of a header into the back of the net. Pretty un-stoppable really and no complaints from us.
With the game four minutes into the six added on, that became nine for some unknown reason, McCallum added his second when substitute Oscar Rutherford, on earlier for the injured Ryan Clampin, whipped in a cross from out wide that was completely un-defended leaving the former Solihull Moors man the easiest task of scoring.
HT: 2 – 1
The second half was quite boring from both sides with very little action to get anyone excited.
We woke up a bit with the introduction of the subs, Barry Maguire, Kieran Phillips and new boy Bailey Hobson coming on for Kai Lissimore, AMS and Nathaniel Knight-Percival. Maguire and Phillips bringing us the bit of pace that was missing. The downside was that Phillips was played too far out wide when he needed to be played closer to McDonagh to be of any real use.
Late on in the game Christian Dibble came to our rescue diving bravely at the feet of Aidan Barlow on the goal line with the home fans thinking they had scored a third goal while their Maguire had a shot well saved.
After the game Russ Penn told the press that he’d been looking at two more players, in addition to Hobson, but they’d turned him down. I doubt very much that either of them were the strikers that we so desperately need.
FT: 2 – 1
Goals for Eastleigh: McCallum 23, 45+4
Goal for Harriers: McDonagh 8 (pen)
The Harriers Online MotM is: Alex Penny
Talk about the game here
Latest table and stats here
| Eastleigh FC | Goals | Subs | Time | Cards |
| McDonnell | ||||
| Langston | ||||
| Clampin |  |
35 | ||
| Atangana | ||||
| Rendell | ||||
| Francilette | ||||
| Carter | ||||
| C Maguire | ||||
| McCallum |  |
 |
75 |  |
| Quigley | |
|||
| Boldewijn | ||||
| Subs: | ||||
| Scott | ||||
| Barlow |  |
75 | ||
| Nwabuokei | ||||
| Rutherford |  |
35 | ||
| Chalwell | ||||
| Harriers | Goals | Subs | Time | Cards |
| Dibble | ||||
| Oxlade-Chamberlain | ||||
| Richards | ||||
| Knight-Percival | |
76 | ||
| Pearce | ||||
| Penny | ||||
| Brown | ||||
| Leesley | |
|||
| Morgan-Smith |  |
61 | ||
| McDonagh | |
|||
| Lissimore | |
56 | ||
| Subs: | ||||
| Phillips |  |
61 | ||
| Hemmings | ||||
| B Maguire | |
56 | ||
| Hobson | |
76 | ||
| Hall | ||||
| Referee: | ||||
| Mr Greg Rollason | ||||
| Worcester | ||||