Kidderminster Harriers Vs Maidenhead Utd. 27-08-23. Match preview

Preview: Phil Lench

It’s a quick turnaround for the Harriers with a game yesterday and then another one tomorrow. Hopefully they won’t have had too much time to dwell on how bad it was at Ebbsfleet Utd for both the team and for the fans with it, quite possibly, being our worst performance since last Spring before our great upturn in fortunes that saw us get promoted. One can only hope that yesterdays game will become a similar catalyst  for us.

We started the game positively even though the Kent Online newspaper summed it up very well:

Kidderminster had enjoyed most of the early action although they seemed to adopt a shoot-on-sight policy rather than a shoot-on-target one

That all came to an end when Dominic Poleon borrowed a quote from (Na)poleon that ‘Victory belongs to the most persevering’ and scored both his goals within minutes of each other to kill us off. Fleet were helped on their way when Alex Penny was sent off for two yellows and added a third on the stroke of half time. In the second half they just sat back to let us come at them but we didn’t accept the invitation and still didn’t even test their keeper.

Alex will be allowed to play tomorrow but will miss the Southend Utd game next Saturday. Meanwhile Jack Lambert who missed the Ebbsfleet game due to his one match suspension will now be available for us tomorrow.

Now we have to put that game behind us and aim to beat, along with actually scoring, against first time visitors Maidenhead Utd (who, btw, are not from Kent).

They’ve started their season slightly better than us with two wins and draws and just the one defeat. On Saturday they were held at home by Oxford City in a scoreless draw. Their only defeat was at current league leaders Hartlepool Utd a few weeks ago.

Lewis Kinsella is playing for them now following his release from Wealdstone FC in the summer. He played for us on loan from Aston Villa in the latter part of the 2015-16 season and many were surprised that we didn’t try to sign him on his release from Villa. Instead he signed for Colchester Utd and spent eighteen months there before signing for Aldershot Town.

We know what we have to do tomorrow. Score some bloody goals and get a confidence boosting win for both the team and the fans.

Referee: Mr Paul Marsden. Leyland

Talk about the game here

Links to Maidenhead Utd websites here

Find Pubs around Kidderminster here