Harriers 2 WBA XI 2

The Harriers put up a creditable display in this friendly against a Baggies XI at Aggborough tonight with the game ending in a 2-2 draw and our goals supplied by Matt Barnes-Homer and new signing Kyle Hadley.  The Albion was made up with mostly youth team players but one or two, like Chris Woods, are on the verge of breaking through into the 1st team.

In front of a decent crowd for a friendly, 1057, it was MBH that came close to opening the scoring in the first minute of the game.  Hadley supplied the ammunition but the Albion keeper managed to block Matty's strong shot.

It took twenty seven minutes for the first goal to arrive and after continuous pressure from the Harriers the goal went into the wrong net.  The referee awarded the Albion a penalty for no apparent reason after a Martin Riley challenge that didn't look illegal.  Josh Knight was the Albion player that slotted the ball home.

We almost pulled the goal back straight from the re-start when MBH again came close to scoring as he swept in on Chris McPhee's cross to send a header towards goal but the keeper again saved it.  A few minutes later and we had drawn level.

Brian Smikle chased after a ball that looked to be going out and then whipped over a great cross for our hero to head it in off the post.  A brilliant goal for MBH.

With the half time whistle about to go we could easily have taken a lead into the break when another new signing, Aaron Farrell, sent a volley only inches over the bar.


It wasn't long into the second half when we deservedly took the lead.  Kyle Hadley beat his man to take the ball into the Albion half of the field and, with no one near him apart from Farrell, he ignored the option of passing to him and fired the ball into the net beyond the grasp of the keeper.

Three quarters of the way through the game and the Albion should have drawn level when, from twenty five yards out, Josh Knight sent in a shot that cannoned back off the post and into the path of a bloke with a long name, Lateef Elford Alliyu.  LEA had the easiest chance of the game to simply slot the ball home from close range but somehow Kyle Letheren, on for Dean Coleman, managed to get down to it at the foot of the post and push it away.

It was all to no avail though because a few minutes later LEA did manage to beat Letheren as the ball pinged around the area and this time his tap in did manage to evade the on trial keeper.

It was the Albion that almost got the winner five minutes from time when Sam Mantom managed to evade the challenges from the Harriers defenders and send in a good shot on goal.  Again Letheren did well to save it and the game.

That's how it ended then.  A satisfying 2-2 draw.

Harriers:
Dean Coleman (Kyle Letheren), Duane Courtney, Gavin Caines (David McDermott), Martin Riley (Zac Costello), Lee Baker (Darryl Knights), Kyle Hadley, Chris McPhee (Nathan Hayward), Dean Bennett (Liam Dolman), Brian Smikle, Matthew Barnes-Homer, Aaron Farrell (Tom Sharpe).

WBA XI:
Ryan Allsop, Ashley Lovell, Kayo Brown, Joss Labadie, Paul Downing, Ashley Malcolm, Josh Knight, Dave Worrell, Chris Wood, Romaine Sawyers, Lateef Elford Alliyu.

Subs:
Sam Mantom, Jordan Tebbutt, Luke Connolly, Liam O' Neill, Lee Lynch, Akil Grier, Ethan Mannion, Gez Mulholland.

Goals from:
Barnes-Homer
Farrell

Attendance:
1057 (373 away)