Morecambe 0 Harriers 1
Date: 23-09-06
Venue: Christie Park
att: 1496
away fans: ?
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Christie opens his account
For the first time this season the Harriers have put together two wins in a row after Iyseden Christie scored the only goal of the game at Morecambes' Christie Park today. The last time we had two league wins in a row was back in January when we actually won three: Woking (away) 1-0, Scarborough (home) 2-1 and finally Southport (away) 4-1.
The most recent win against Southport on Tuesday evening last week must have been an omen that Mark Yates took heed of because he decided to go with the same team that started that game, but with just the one change to the bench where Jamie McClen came in for Scott Eaton.
It was Morecambe that should have gone into a first half lead when Gary Thompson missed an open goal from just three yards out. He chose to blast the ball instead of just tapping it in.
Simon Russell also spurned chances to give us the lead in this half, not once but twice. On forty minutes Iyseden Christie played him in with a beautiful pass but Russell shot well wide from twelve yards out. Then four minutes later another brilliant cross, this time from Gavin Hurren, found him in space but this time the Shrimps keeper, Steven Drench, denied him with a great save as he launched himself across the face of the goal to push it around the post with his fingertips.
It had been a solid first half for us with the only blot being the two bookings picked up. One for Hurren, the second for him this week, and a fifth booking of the season for Russell Penn for which he will miss our game against Crawley at Aggborough next Saturday.
HT: 0 - 0
The second half saw Morecambe start well again with David McNiven being stopped from scoring by an excellent save from Scott Bevan as he dived low to his right to push away a powerful header.
Defender Chris Blackburn then came close to scoring for the Shrimps when he turned and volleyed from the edge of the box but luckily for us the ball crept wide of the post. McNiven, again, had another shot turned away for a corner by Mark Creighton but then the Harriers hit back following the substitution of Michael McGrath with Michael Blackwood.
It was a cross from Blackie that led to a Gavin Hurren shot that was saved by Drench before the supplier headed the ball narrowly past the post after a probing cross from Jonny Harkness. Just after that we were to have a perfectly good goal dis-allowed for a supposed offside.
Blackwood again supplied the cross for Christie to run onto, going past a Morecambe defender on the way, but the linesman deemed him to be offside although the referee had originally allowed it. It didn't matter though because four minutes later Christie had given us the winning lead.
With the Morecambe defence rooted and exposed, he raced through them and then past the keeper to rifle the ball into the empty net much to the delight of his team mates and supporters.
In the dying minutes of the game Scott Bevan did well to stop substitute Matty Shaw from scoring an equaliser and again when Danny Carlton had a free header from six yards.
Morecambe poor season continues but ours looks to have taken an upturn and can only breed a confidence that should be taken back to Aggborough for the game against Crawley next Saturday.