Harriers win on the road at last

The Harriers won on the road for the first time in four months with two well taken, second half goals from Chris McPhee at Gateshead.  Our last three pointer away from home came at Kettering last November when we came back from there with a 2-0 win under our belts.

The fact that today's win was our first one since Steve Burr came to the club has come as something of a surprise considering that his arrival has notionally seen an upturn in our playing style and also rewarded him with the Manager of the Month trophy for February.  All that without an away win to his name.

The game today saw the return of Ross Atkins in goal in place of Jas Singh and also Chris McPhee following his absence at Barrow on Thursday evening.  Also coming back in was Tom Sharpe in the full back slot that was occupied by Marcus Bignot and also a return to the side for midfield maestro John Finnigan following his full recovery from injury.

The first half contained very little action from either side.  You would have expected Gateshead, struggling dangerously close to relegation, to have had a bit more go to their game but they seemed to be just as un-interested as we seemed to be.

The first real chance of the game fell for Gateshead when a free kick went just wide of the post but a few minutes later we also had a chance too when Jack Byrne shot over from distance when he could have fed Robbie Matthews with the ball but opted not to.  Peter Winn replied with a shot that he should have scored from but somehow his shot went out for a throw-in instead then he almost made amends for his miss by sending a shot only just wide of Atkins upright.

Apart from another chance for Winn and a chance that fell for John Finnigan there was no further action in the first half and the game went into the break scoreless.

Steve Burr had obviously realised that the previous line-up wasn't working too well and made two crucial changes at the start of the second half.  On came Brian Smikle in place of the invisible James Lawrie and Dean Bennett in place of Jack Byrne.

The change hadn't seemed to bother Peter Winn because his move down the left side of the pitch ended with a cross for Daryl Clare that the much travelled journeyman somehow managed to head narrowly over the bar.  Wayne Phillips went close again for Gateshead with a good shot across the face of goal.

It was when Darryl Knights came on for the out of sorts, again, Robbie Matthews that we suddenly looked like a team that could be capable of scoring.  He burst onto the scene with a shot that went just over the bar and then he laid off the ball for Chris McPhee to score from the edge of the area with a shot that nestled into the corner of the home team goal.

Six minutes later and it was game over and a brace for McPhee.  Again Knights supplied him with the ball after Lloyd Kerry's mis-hit shot fell for him to loft it towards McPhee who, this time, used his head to give us the second goal of the game, our fourth away win, a double over Gateshead and a move back up to tenth place in the table.

The former Harrier, Andy Ferrell, could have pulled a consolation goal back for his side a minute from the end but, again, the shot went flying the wrong side of the post.

We now have to wait until next Thursday for our next game with a visit to Hayes and then on Saturday we entertain the Champions elect, Stevenage, and a chance to seek some kind of recompense for 'that game'!

 Goals for Harriers: McPhee 74, 80

REFEREE:

Mr M Naylor Sth Yorkshire