At first he struggled to make an impression but once he made the team on a regular basis it all took off for him. His displays on the right wing combined with his pin point crosses played a large part in Matt Barnes-Homer and Justin Richards achieving over forty goals between them and he also helped out with nine goals himself.Sadly at the end of last season he made his back to his roots on Tyneside and joined Gateshead. Even more sad is that he will be playing no part in the game tomorrow after breaking his leg in two places in a fifty/fifty tackle against Hayes & Yeading a few weeks back. The game was abandoned and is now the subject of a FA inquiry but that has nothing to do with Martin.
Thankfully he's now out of hospital and the good news is that he will be coming to Aggborough to support his team mates and also to thank the Harriers fans for their words of support and good will messages. I'm sure that he'll be witness to a massive cheer when he comes out onto the pitch prior to the start of the game.
It's not just Britt that will be returning to Aggborough this weekend because Ian Bogie will also be making an official return but this time as the manager of Gateshead. He joined them in the summer of 2006 as Assistant Manager and then took over as Caretaker Manager before he was given the Manager's job on a permanent basis for the start of the 2007-08 BSQ North campaign.
He played for us in the promotion season of 2000 and stayed for one year of a two year contract before, like Martin Brittain, asking to return home to Newcastle. He only scored twice for us but what a cracker the one was when, from just outside the area, he put us into the lead against Southend Utd.
Gateshead will be without a couple of players for the game. James Curtis became the third player sent off for them this season when he received his marching orders in midweek at Chester City. Kris Gate could miss the game because of an eye injury.
Following that disappointing draw at Histon on Saturday, when a mix up between Dean Coleman and Martin Riley lead to the dropping of two points, Mark Yates has now been drumming into the players heads the need to improve communication between each other. That's a problem that has been very noticeable this season and really does need sorting out before it's too late.
We'll have Robbie Matthews missing once again and now it could be for at least another three weeks with today's news that he's going to be given a longer recovery period this time. Gavin Caines is struggling to make it after his ankle took a knock at Histon and Dean Bennett has a sore toe but should be able to play. John Finnigan should be available once more after missing the Histon game.
With Gateshead visibly struggling both on and off the pitch it's going to be a hard, long season for them. I think they have got to be one of the favourites to go down and that's sad really.
It's a shame that we can't give them three points.
Photo © KHFC
Teams:
Harriers from:
Coleman, Singh, Baker, Riley, Courtney, Sharpe, Farrell, Finnigan, Knights, Hadley, D McDermott, McPhee, Bennett, Hayward, Caines, Costello, Barnes-Homer, Smikle, Dolman.
Gateshead from:
Provett, Farman, Baxter, Robinson, Gate, Jones, Turnbull, Armstrong, Richardson, Phillips, Harwood, Francis, Swailes, Baptist, N McDermott, Forsyth, Cave, Pelonde, Mackay, Ascherl, One.
Links to Gateshead websites here
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