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Vs darlington 
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Three points go begging


Andy Ducros made his first appearance of the season when he took the place of Dean Bennett who missed the game through injury.  Ian Foster replaced the suspended Drewe Broughton and there was a return for Craig Hinton who played his first game for three weeks after breaking his nose against Rushden.

The Harriers were the first to have a shot on goal after nine minutes but Adie's weak header gave the Darlo keeper, Collett, no problem.  Almost immediately Darlington replied when Ford shot wide from twelve yards out.

They did score with their next attack though but Liddle's header was ruled out because the linesman had been flagging for offside for about twenty minutes.

The Reds were struggling to get anything going in front of goal even though the build up was good.  We were obviously missing the aerial threat of Drewe Broughton.  We were trying to play to the feet of Henriksen all of the time but the Darlo defenders weren't giving him much time on the ball to do his trickery.  Sometimes he did manage to escape their attentions and when he linked up with Ducros it all looked very promising.

It was Ducros who very nearly broke the deadlock for Harriers but his header was pushed onto the bar by Collett.  It wouldn't have counted if it had gone in because the referee had already blown for offside.Sean Flynn Two minutes later Bo Henriksen forced Collett into another save but his shot from twenty yards out was weak and didn't really trouble the keeper.

The Harriers were now starting to get on top and we came our closest so far when Sean Flynn sent a header across the goal only to see Henriksen just fail to connect properly with his overhead effort.

Both teams trooped off at half time with the Harriers looking more likely to score after sterling work form Ducros and Williams in midfield.


HT. 0 - 0

The Harriers went into the lead eight minutes after the restart when a penalty was awarded to us.  Referee Walton ruled that Andy Ducros had been tripped in the area by Betts while coming onto a pass from Henriksen.

After a short consulation with Bo, Ian Foster stepped up to take the spot kick.  He sent Collett the wrong way to reward himself with his first goal of the season.

In response to this the Darlo manager made a triple substitution when he sent on Hadland, Wainwright and Alexander for Naylor, Clark and Cullen.

The move repaid dividends almost immediately when Darlington equalised.

Again it came from a set piece, this time a corner, when Conlon rose highest to connect with a corner and send the ball just out of reach of Brock and into the back of the net.

After that we struggled to get back into the game and we only managed to give fleeting glimpses of our first half form.  If any team was going to score now it would be Darlington.Matt Lewis The closest we came to scoring was when Ducros shot wide after some good work by Flynn on the edge of the box in the seventieth minute.

Ian Britton sent on Matt Lewis for Ian Foster ten minutes from time but he had little chance to do anything positive in front of goal although he did have a few nice touches.

A disappointing game overall.  We knew we would have to play our football on the ground to counteract the loss of Broughton but without him we have no aerial power and with so many crosses coming in there was no way Bo would be able to get on the end of them.


FT. 1 - 1

The Harriers-Online
Man of the Match is : 
Danny Williams

Solid effort in midfield.  Never really gave Darlington much time on the ball.

Best for them:  Ian Clark.

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man of the match now

Harriers  subs   cards      Darlington  subs   cards 
Brock     Collett  
Smith     Valentine  
Stamps     Betts
Williams     Liddle  
Hinton     Clarke  
Ayres     Clark  
Flynn   Ford  
Parrish     Maddison  
Henriksen   Conlon  
Foster     Naylor  
Ducros     Cullen  
SUBS:       SUBS:    
Danby     Nicholls  
Joy     McGurk  
Doyle     Hadland  
Shilton     Wainwright  
Lewis     Alexander  

REFEREE:
P Walton (North Hants)


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