The Harriers haven't chosen the best time to take on rising Gateshead following their hard won home draw against Mansfield Town on Saturday. That credible result came on the back of an away win at Histon and a home win against strongly fancied Luton a few days earlier.We, on the other hand, haven't been doing so well and with defeats against Bath City and then Crawley Town we now sit five places below our guests in 16th place in the League. It is still only three points difference though and a decent 3-0 win to us tomorrow would take us above them.
Ian Bogie, their manager and the former Harriers midfielder, has just bought in on loan an highly rated youngster from Sunderland. Fullback Michael Kay made his debut and scored the goal that held Mansfield and has already impressed the Gateshead fans.
Gateshead also have a smattering of former Reds playing for them in Andy Ferrell (3rd from left in photo), Craig Nelthorpe and of course Martin Brittain (far left in photo). Martin is now back in action once more following his horrific broken leg early last season and is still supplying superb crosses and his fair share of goals. If only.
They'll be without just the one player tomorrow with Carl Jones out with a medial ligament injury. That happened during the recent game against Luton when the former Harriers striker, Taiwo Atieno, clumsily bought him down and got sent off for it.
Any minute that pig might land because we must surely be getting near to the return of John Finnigan from injury. It's been promised now for the past three weeks but still we see neither hide nor hair of him. Does John Finnigan actually exist?
Michael Briscoe picked up an injury to his ear at Crawley but he should be fine and apart from that we have no other injuries.
Following the Bath City defeat Steve Burr hinted at changes to the line-up but by the time Crawley dawned it was just the one change with Matty Blair coming in for Dave Hankin. Many fans had been hoping to see Marc Williams start a game for once and with his last start coming against Tamworth at the end of August he's well overdue another one. Will it be tomorrow evening or is he destined to be forever the super sub?
We also have a few forgotten men that could do a job too. Tom Sharpe where are you?, Aaron Griffiths are you here?, Tom Shaw why are you always on the bench now?
Anyway I have to predict a result for us tomorrow. I can't see us losing this, says he, but I can't see us winning it either so I'll be going with a draw. A 2-2 draw.
Photo © Harriers Online
Teams:
Harriers from:
Lewis, Stevens, Vaughan, Mike Williams, Sharpe, Albrighton, Griffiths, Finnigan, Thorne, Byrne, Shaw, Briscoe, McPhee, Briggs, Hankin, Morris, Wright, Blair, Gittings, Hadley, Marc Williams.
Gateshead from:
Deasy, Farman, Cook, Baxter, Heckingbottom, Gate, Curtis, Kay, Clark, Brittain, Turnbull, J Shaw, Allan, Nelthorpe, Ferrell, Francis, Baptist, Wake, Fisher, Mulligan, Marwood, Gillies, Brown.
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