Harriers out on penalties. All 25 of them!

The Harriers made their exit from the FA Trophy at York City tonight but for the first ninety minutes it looked like neither side would be going through.  In the end the game was decided by a marathon penalty shoot out that came very close to bettering the record set by Tunbridge and Littlehampton in a FA Cup game in August 2005.  On that occasion Tunbridge won 16-15.

Tonight's game could be looked on as the first 90 minutes being a pre-anti-climax such was the lack of excitement from two sides going through the motions.  Even when it got to extra time the spirits were hardly raised by the spectre of a further thirty minutes.

There were two goals in the actual game and they both came within minutes of each other during the second half.  In fact our goal was probably our first real shot on target.

Mark Yates went with two changes to the team that York had held to a draw at Aggborough.  Mark Creighton returned, following the recovery from his hamstring injury, in place of Luke Jones and Darryl Knights was dropped to the bench for Martin Brittain to make a start.  York's only change from the first game was Mark Greaves coming in for Danny Kelly.

The first half was a non event and we seemed to have quickly dispensed with the passing football of the previous two games and reverted back to the long ball game favoured by Yates and no one else.

Richard Brodie had a long range shot on goal in the third minute of the game that didn't really test Adam Bartlett too much and our first attempt on goal came from Keith Lowe ten minutes later when he met an Andy Ferrell cross at the far post but headed wide.

City were forced into an early substitution after twenty five minutes when the former Harriers golden boy, Simon Russell, came on for the far from match fit Greaves.  Greaves had been out injured for quite a while and his injury came back to haunt him.

We had another chance of scoring a minute after when Martin Brittain played Justin Richards in with a ball to the edge of the area but Richards sent the ball well wide of the intended target.  Matt Barnes-Homer also tried to get in on the action but his shot, from a Richards pass, went across the face of the goal.

Ten minutes before the end of the half City should really have taken the lead when Brodie's attempted cross from out wide swerved towards the goal and, catching Bartlett un-awares, hit the crossbar and out for a goal kick.  Levi Mackin also came close but his long range shot was too high and cleared the bar.

There was just time for one last chance for us before the first forty five minutes ended and that was for a shot from Lee Baker that got deflected away from the goal by a City defender.

HT: 0 - 0

City came out for the second period with more purpose and could have scored when Russell almost got one over his old team mates with a looping header that went just over the bar.  We came back with a cross from Brittain to Richards that was blocked from going in by Simon Rusk.

Just after that we made a double substitution with Brian Smikle and Stefan Moore coming on for David McDermott and Matthew Barnes-Homer.

Ten minutes later City opened the scoring just as everyone was starting to fall asleep.  Daniel McBreen sent a header crashing against the foot of the post and, with the Harriers defenders wrong footed, followed up to send it past Bartlett into the net.

It took just five minutes for the Reds to get back on equal terms.  Richards spotted the City keeper, Ingham, off his line and chipped the ball over him from forty yards out.  A City defender tried to get back to stop it but could only help it on its way into the net.

Yates decided to make another change to the side and bought on Darryl Knights in place of Lee Baker.  By replacing a defender with a striker he had now decided to go for broke and all out attack.

City also had the same intentions and managed to get the ball into the net two minutes form time but it was struck off for a push on Keith Lowe.  We responded with a shot from Smikle that got blocked on the line and then at the other end Barts saved well from an Adam Boyes shot but the best chance fell to Brodie when he missed an open goal in the dying seconds of normal time.

FT: 1 - 1

The game went into an extra thirty minutes and we were the first this time to get a chance when Mark Creightons header came back off the bar.  It then turned into a midfield battle for the remainder of the first fifteen minutes.

City had calls for a penalty rightfully turned down when Danny Parslow went down in the box with Knights hovering by but not making contact but when Stefan Moore was bought down the referee awarded the Harriers a free kick on the edge of the area.  Brittain took it and it swerved at the last second and almost deceived Ingham but he somehow managed to get a hand to it.

City bought on Onome Sodje for Adam Boyes and Moore blasted the ball wide for us and then at the death another free kick was handed to us and again Brittain went close but not close enough.

The game went to penalties.

ET: 1 - 1

 Goal for York: McBreen 73
 Goal for Harriers: Richards 79