Generally the defence had a stinker and must hold most of the blame for the defeat but the front line needn't think they can get away with it either because they just did not perform and looked totally off the pace compared to Stevenages' three big men up front. And that could be the biggest worry for the Harriers manager, Steve Burr.His persistance of playing a lone striker home and away with two lightweights in support does work well sometimes but Saturday it clearly wasn't and should have been addressed far earlier than near the end of the game when he paired James Lawrie up with Robbie Matthews. Earlier the in-effective Adam Boyd had been given long enough and Matthews came on but he was still the lone striker and getting nowhere. By the time he was given a partner it was all too late.
The really galling thing is that Chris Beardsley, who was causing most of the damage and scored twice, was deemed to be not good enough for us and allowed to leave.
For the Luton game we could see changes to the starting eleven anyway with both Jack Byrne and Marc Goodfellow once more eligible to play after being cup tied for the Trophy games. They will miss out again next Saturday for the second leg.
We have a few minor injury problems with John Finnigan still possibly missing after also missing out on Saturday and from that game Martin Riley, Gavin Caines, Dean Bennett and Darryl Knights all picked up knocks with Caines being the most serious with an Achilles injury that he has been playing through for a while now. We now have strength in depth and can choose from a variety of players for all over the park if needed.
Luton, who won at Aggborough 2-1 back in October with a late Ryan Charles goal, have been on a bit of a run of late and are slowly creeping up on a faltering Oxford Utd. Charles came to us on loan soon after but failed to make any kind of impression and was re-called by Luton after three weeks.
They also have three other former Harriers playing for them with the most notable being Matt Barnes-Homer. MBH joined Luton for an un-disclosed fee of around £75,000 towards the end of November last year but so far has had a torrid time at Kenilworth Road with the home fans often on his back. Sadly he didn't play against Wrexham last Saturday due to the death of his father but he has made himself available to play against his old club.
The other two ex Harriers are Craig Nelthorpe and Simon Heslop. The latter signed for Town on loan from Barnsley until the end of the season and made a big impression on the fans down there.
They have a few injuries but they seem to be long term ones. Kevin Nicholls, Lewis Emanual and the afore mentioned Ryan Charles are all out for a while with Liam Hatch and Adam Newton recovering from hamstring injuries but not quick enough for our visit.
Tommorow will be tough, tough, tough and I personally think we'll be lucky to come back with a point but we can at least close ranks and do an Eastbourne.
Photo © KHFC
Teams:
Harriers from:
Singh, Atkins, Baker, Riley, Bignot, Courtney, Sharpe, Finnigan, Byrne, Knights, Hadley, McPhee, Bennett, Hayward, Caines, Smikle, Lawrie, Goodfellow, Boyes, Matthews.
Luton from:
Tyler, Gore, Heslop, Asafu-Adjaye, Keane, Kovacs, Pilkington, Craddock, Blackett, Hall, Howells, Jarvis, Gnakpa, Gallen, Nelthorpe, Murray, Beavan, Nwokeji, Barnes-Homer, Watkins, Patrick, Wood, Nathaniel, Barker, Lacey.
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