Match preview Vs Cambridge Utd

The second session of the new season takes place tomorrow night at Cambridge and the Harriers will be hoping to put one over one of our former players again.  In the corresponding game last March Wayne Hatswell lost it and made comments to the Harriers fans that didn't go down too well.

We won that game 3-0 with a brace from Matt Barnes-Homer and a penalty in the dying minutes from the now departed Iyseden Christie.  The win continued our on-going hoodoo over Cambridge with them only ever having won one game back in the mists of time in 1959.  We might let them win on the fiftieth anniversary of that game next year then.

Following our frustrating draw at home to newly promoted Lewes on Saturday we are going to have play a bit better this time and one way to achieve that is for Mark Yates to get the team selection and the team tactics right this time.  We looked a mess against Lewes with no midfield to speak of, a defence that went missing too often and Darryl Knights playing totally out of position alongside the mis-firing Justin Richard.

The wonky team selection was compounded further when Yates in-explicitly took off Michael Bowler and replaced him with Martin Brittain, a winger.  And we were supposed to be at home!

Yates should have learnt from that and we should see a more conventional approach tomorrow.
We have no injuries from that game and it's believed that United don't have any from their game at Northwich, a game that was quite stormy by all accounts as they ran out 1-0 winners, but they will be without a few players that have existing injuries.  Courtney Pitt is out waiting for a knee operation while Danny Brown has a shoulder problem.

Their new manager Gary Brabin strengthened their squad just before the Northwich game by signing the highly rated Chris Jones on loan from Swansea City, Former Sparta Rotterdam winger Felino Jardim and Jon Challinor for £15,000 from Rushden.

I think this is going to be a hard game for us but if the team selection makes more sense this time then we could be in for all the points once more.


Harriers from:
Bartlett, Coleman, Baker, Riley, Bignot, Ferrell, Creighton, Bowler, Jones, Foley, Knights, McDermott, Bennett, McGrath, Brittain, Russell, Penn, Barnes-Homer, Smikle, Richards.

Cambridge from:
Potter, Gleeson, Tonkin, Bolland, Hatswell, Beesley, Parkinson, McEvilly, Challinor, Coulson, Convery, Carden, Farrell, Hoyte, Willmott, Jones, Jardim, Bussens, Quinton, Collins.

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