The Harriers went crashing out of their third and final Cup tournament of the season today when they lost 2-0 at Wrexham in this seasons FA Trophy. After dropping out of the money spinning FA Cup to York City and then the less than financially attractive WSC at home to Worcester City this was seen as an important way to get us out of the mess we have now found ourselves in this week.
We have also never lost a League game at Wrexham, although we have lost in the Welsh Cup years ago, and to go out in the way we did today was not good.
The only change to the side that drew with York in the League a few weeks ago was Callum Gittings coming in for Matty Blair. Wrexham made quite a few changes including the use of two former Harriers in Marc Williams and Mark Creighton.
From start to finish we were poor and rarely did we test the 2nd string Wrexham keeper Chris Maxwell. In fact our first piece of the action was when Aaron Griffiths got himself booked for a challenge on Adrian Cieslewicz.
It took twenty minutes to get our first glimpse of goal when Chris McPhee fired in a shot that started to go wide but Gittings managed to reach it and divert it just the wrong side of the post.
The home side opened the scoring just under ten minutes later when Keith Briggs and Griffiths combined to hand the hosts a goal on a plate. Callum Gittings corner was played to Briggs on the edge of the box but he was dispossessed by Mathias Pogba and Wrexham surged forward. Griffiths slipped at the vital moment to allow Cieslewicz's pass to reach Jay Harris who made no mistake in firing the ball beyond the reach of Danny Lewis.
A few minutes later and Wrexham were through to the 2nd round, give or take another 60 minutes of the game. Marcus Pogba managed to escape his marker and nodded the ball down for David Brown to finish off a sweeping move by lashing the ball past Lewis and us out of the cup.
It should have been three goals minutes before the halftime whistle but Lewis did well to miraculously deny Adrian Cieslewicz of a goal from edge of the box that was destined for the top corner, only for the Harriers keeper to dive to his left and palm it away. On the whistle Jack Byrne limped off with a foot injury and Mitchell McPike came on in his place.