The Harriers returned from a fiery encounter - as it always seems to be - at Forest Green, with a point thanks to a latish Chris McPhee goal but we should really have wrapped the game up in the dying minutes of the game when Nick Wright spurned a golden chance to give us all three points by shooting at the keeper a few feet from goal.
Towards the end of the first half Forest Green should have had Reece Styche sent off after he kicked the Harriers keeper Danny Lewis in the face causing the game to be stopped for almost five minutes while Danny was attended to. The referee, Richard Martin, decided against a red card and instead issued a yellow in a feeble attempt to look as if he was in control of the game.
With a changed team selection McPhee dropped back into midfield while Jamille Matt replaced him up front. Out wide Matty Blair was dropped to the bench in favour of Dave Hankin, Jack Byrne too with Callum Gittings replacing him while Nick Wright also part of the game out.
Forest Green had former Harriers Luke Jones and Craig Armstrong starting for them while Gavin Caines was on the bench.
The game was scrappy. Let's not beat about the bush here because both sides were a poor example of non league football and on their day bottom placed Histon could have beaten either of us.
It was FGR that did have most of the chances in the opening period with Styche and Ross Dyer both going close but Danny Lewis pulled off some very good stops. The scoring was opened by Steve Guinan in the 20th minute when Mark Albrighton decided not to challenge for a through ball to Jared Hotchkiss who then crossed the ball over to the unmarked Guinan to head it past Lewis at close range.
The goal knocked us back for a while and we allowed Rovers to take control of the game. This wasn't helped by some poor passing and poor defending from the Harriers and in one attack Michael Briscoe was booked for a foul on the edge of the area when it looked to most fans as being just inside the penalty area.
Soon after came the disgraceful GBH attack on Lewis. The ball was played through for Styche to run onto but Danny got there first and tried to shield the ball with his body. Styche swung his foot at him and caught him in the chest then to everyone's disbelief he aimed a boot at his face and caught him just above the eye. The linesman immediately flagged for the incident but, with Harriers fans crowding round him and fans baying for blood, the referee raised a yellow card in a cowardly fashion and allowed a thug to stay on the pitch.
Within seconds of the restart, following treatment to the Harriers keeper, Styche had fallen to the floor claiming he had been elbowed by Briscoe even though Briscoe was behind him at the time. It was Rovers fans turn to call for a sending off and matters were made worse when a non playing member of the FGR team, Ian Herring, ran onto the pitch to have his say. Again the referee failed to take action and had by this time lost total control of the game.
He quickly blew for the break and walked off the pitch to a crescendo of abuse from all around the stadium.