The Harriers went down to their first home defeat of the season today in a disappointing 2-0 reversal to an ordinary looking Macclesfield side. After last weeks brilliant team performance against Hull City today's game had a bit of 'after the Lord Mayors show' feeling about it.
There was a debut for Kenny Coleman, on loan from Wolves. He replaced Mark Clyde who had been recalled by Wolves because of international duty and an injury crisis.
Drewe Broughton missed the game through suspension and also out was Dean Bennett. He had been sent home from training yesterday, presumably through illness.
Kicking off in brilliant sunshine with the Reds attacking the College End it was Macclesfield who dominated the early proceedings. Their first attempt on goal coming after just three minutes when Whitaker had a hopeful shot from 20yds out easily saved by Stuart Brock.
A few minutes later it was the same man who popped up again but his shot was wildly mis-hit and ended up in the back of the stand.
The Harriers were struggling to make their presence felt and passes were going astray, mainly from Danny Williams and
Scott Stamps. Normally you can depend on these two but not today.
It took a shot from Tipton to wake the sleeping giants up. His shot from outside the area went straight at Brockie but from the clearance Coleman played the ball out to Melligan who then played it on for Shilton. Coleman was waiting for the return ball and when it came he tested 'chicken legs' Wilson with a shot from 20yds out.
Next up to try his luck was Ian Foster and he should really have scored when he ran onto a mistake from a Macc defender but he took the ball too far to the touchline and his cross shot was easily saved by Wilson.
On 30 minutes we conceded our first home goal since we played Darlington back in August.
A free kick was conceded on the edge of the area and the supposedly suspended Michael Welch drove the ball through the wall from 20 yards out. Brockie got a hand to it but could only help the ball trickle into the back of his net.
Now was the time for us to pick our game up but we didn't seem to have the capability. We were clearly lacking a target man with Drewe missing and even though we were playing the ball on the floor more than in recent games the forward line just seemed to be a second too late each time. The pairing of Bo and Fozzie was just not working.
Before the break Stamper had a shot fly into the side netting when there were players better placed to do something with it. At least he was making an effort.