Harriers win for the cameras

The Harriers refused to be bogged down in the swampy conditions at Aggborough tonight when they beat Torquay Utd 1-0 in front of the Setanta cameras with the goal coming from Matt Barnes-Homer.  The first half we seemed to be slightly wary of the conditions but once we scored towards the end we re-emerged for the second period looking a different side.

Torquay, who haven't had the best start to the season, seemed to settle better than us and along with their more precise passing should have punished us.

Justin Richards was the first to have a pop at goal but his so called 'shot' was so far away from the goal it went out for a throw in.  Torquay replied with a shot that sailed wide from Wayne Carlisle.

Utd threatened again with the dangerous, but in-effective, Roscoe Dsane trying and failing to beat the offside trap.  He did on one occasion but slipped as he tried to collect the ball.

Slipping over was a common sight in this game and the odd mishap was to be expected but the referee didn't see it that way and punished almost every challenge from a Harriers player yet ignoring similar tackles from Torquay.  After twenty minutes the conditions became worse and the game was in danger of being called off as the heavens opened and dropped Trimpley Reservoir onto the players.

With the rain easing off the Harriers came close to opening the scoring when Justin Richards got onto the end of a typical Martin Brittain cross whipped in from the right.  Justin's header was equally well saved by the Utd keeper, Michael Poke.

Four minutes from time in the first half Barnes-Homer gave warning of the impending goal when Brian Smikle passed the ball to him on the edge of the area but his weak shot didn't really trouble Poke.  A few minutes later and he was beaten.

Brittain collected the ball near the halfway line and broke for goal.  Lee Mansell tried to stop him with a sliding tackle but missed him completely leaving Brittain to skip past more challenges until he found the moment to whip in an unstoppable cross.  MBH got in between Steve Woods and Chris Robertson and slid the ball home.