Harriers win again

A goal from Darryl Knights, his second in as many games, gave us all three points from this game against Grays Athletic.  Grays would have been hoping for a positive result following the news that they could face ejection from the League for failing to pay a jailbird £14k after he played just twenty minutes of football for them.

Mark Yates went with the same team that put six goals past Stafford Rangers in midweek and also the same players on the bench.  Grays included Danny Kedwell in their side after he scored against Torquay last week in addition to the three he put past us at The Recreation Ground back in August.  The Harriers would be out to avenge that 5-1 drubbing today.

The game started off with both sides equally balanced and it was Grays who were to get the first chances of a goal when Marlon Patterson got in a shot after Chris MacKenzie punched the ball away.  His shot went straight at the Harriers keeper and was saved easily enough.

Iyseden Christie also directed his shot straight at Ross Flitney, the Grays keeper, soon after.

Darryl Knights, playing behind the front men again, was a bundle of energy harrying the Grays defenders and spraying passes around.  His cross found Christie well placed to open the scoring but the linesman spotted him slightly offside and the chance was gone.

More scoring chances were being made by the Harriers than in any other game this season, apart from the Stafford game of course, and following near misses from Barnes-Homer, Christie and Russ Penn we finally opened the scoring in the twenty third minute.

Darryl Knights picked up a pass from Christie on the edge of the area and moved forward a few feet before sending in a curling shot just inside the post that gave Flitney no chance of saving.

Grays retaliated with a couple of attempts to get back into the game but their forward line wasn't as slick as they had hoped and they rarely troubled MacKenzie all game.  Anything that did come his way was punched away rather than saved.  A bit disconcerting for the fans!

The Harriers went into the break having ruled the half throughout and should really have scored more than the single goal scored early in the half.