Harriers taste their own medicine

The Harriers ended the season with a disappointing defeat at Woking.  With Woking having had a poor season and only winning just one of their last six games we should really have been looking at all the points by the end of the game but it was not to be with the team going through the motions and never getting out of second gear.

The line-up was a repeat of the one that had turned up trumps against Burton in midweek with Andy Ferrell continuing at full back in place of Alex Jeannin.  Jeannin was on the bench after returning from illness and so was Michael Wylde.

The Harriers started the game well by going straight on the offensive to earn a corner through Matt Barnes-Homer but it came to nothing.  Chris MacKenzie was called into action to stop a header from Guiseppe Sole entering the net in the sixth minute.

The game was pretty even but then it exploded into drama when Matt Pattison crudely bought down Simon Russell leaving the nippy winger in agony on the ground.  Pattison was let off lightly with just a yellow card and that refereeing decision was to come back to haunt us soon after.

In the eleventh minute we should have taken the lead, twice.  First Russ Penn sent in a low shot, after being gifted the ball by the Woking captain Danny Bunce, but Nick Gindre managed to push it away but only as far as Iyseden Christie.  His shot was charged down on the line by Jerry Maledon.

Dean Bennett then sent a thirty yard pile driver over the bar and then Darryl Knights chased a ball into the area but Gindre got to it just in the nick of time.

In the twenty fourth minute Woking took the lead against the run of play and the goal came from the player who was leniently given a yellow card earlier in the game.

A mistake from Christie let Pattison in to take the ball forward into the area with our defenders backing off.  Christie gave chase to try to correct his mistake but he couldn't reach him before he fired the ball low into the net.

We scored ourselves just a few minutes later when a Christie header hit the underside of the bar and went in.  The keeper, who was the other side of the post, punched his fist against the netting to punch the ball back out into play but the referee ruled the goal out saying it hadn't crossed the line.  After being pounced on by angry Harriers players, and consulting the linesman, he refused to change his mind and ruled the goal out.

Since the Woking goal and the goal that got disallowed the Harriers have gone into a shell and don't seem to be up for the game anymore.

The home side should have increased the lead when Marvin Morgan robbed Penn in the area and played it on for Pattison but his shot was blocked by Penn after made amends for his mistake and in the final seconds of the half Gavin Hurren did well to deny Damien Batt a chance to score.