Back then the Harriers then lost 5-0 at Boundary Park in front of a healthy 14,000 crowd. Our game will not reach quite those attendance figures and hopefully not that particular scoreline either (unless it's in our favour of course). We'll need to be tough and strong against our higher level opponents.
In the previous round we weren't expected to get much joy from our visit to Grimsby but we managed to stun everyone by racing into an incredible 3-0 lead within twenty minutes of the start and then somehow managed to survive the expected onslaught of the Mariners making a comeback. Survive we did and right at the end, with Grimsby all upfield desperate for the equaliser, Magic Marvin Johnson stunned everyone by breaking away to slot the ball into an empty net and the Harriers fans celebrating before the ball had even left his feet.We'd love to see some more magic like that tomorrow but sadly we cannot seem to replicate that kind of game in front of our own fans and we struggle to score at the best of times. Will that all change against Oldham? Will Marvin produce a similar kind of feat when he comes on? Or will we just cower as Oldham overrun our midfield, annihilate our defence and stifle our attack.
Which Kidderminster Harriers team will turn up at 3.00pm?
We'll have only one doubt for us with Keith Briggs (left) suffering a tooth abscess yesterday but no doubt he'll have had the offender operated on and will be given pain killers prior to the game. He can't really miss out now anyway because on loan Adam Watkins has now returned to Luton and is unlikely to return due to travel problems.
Ryan Austin was sent out on loan to Brackley last week so won't be available while Ricky Shakes, Danny Pilkington and Manny Panther seem to be forgotten men now. We will need seven substitutes on the bench though so at least one of those could be a rare sighting.
Oldham have had the news they were hoping for yesterday when Nottm Forest gave permission for their striker, Matt Derbyshire, to play against us. Forest signed him from Olympiakos last year after he had signed for the Greeks for £3,000,000 from Blackburn in January 2009. He made just two appearances for them before going out on loan to Birmingham City a year later. In his ten appearances for Oldham so far he has scored four times.
They also have the former Everton starlet Jose Baxter lining up for them and he's chipped in with his share of goals too with five goals in ten games too. Baxter was once touted as the new Wayne Rooney but his promise didn't materialise and he only ever made a handful of goals for them before being sent out to Tranmere on loan and then finally being released in July of this year.
One player that won't be turning out for them is Jean-Yves M'voto. He got himself sent off for violent conduct in their 1-1 draw at Crawley last Saturday and he'll miss the next three games for the 'Latics.
By 5pm tomorrow we'll know how we have fared in this very tough game. If it's a draw the replay will be at Oldham on November 13th but hopefully it won't come to that. If we have managed to get into the next round then the draw will be on Sunday afternoon at 2.30pm where we'll be number one but hopefully not the first ball out of the bag again.
Whatever the result let's just hope that we give Oldham a real tough game and may the best team win.
Photo © KHFC
Teams:
Harriers from:
Lewis, N Vaughan, L Vaughan, Williams, Dunkley, Demetriou, Gowling, Shakes, Storer, Panther, Vincent, Briggs, Pilkington, Guinan, Johnson, Malbon, Peniket, Gittings, Rowe, Blissett.
Oldham Athletic from:
Cisak, Bouzanis, Jacob, Brown, Grounds, Wesolowski, Tarkowski, Croft, Furman, Derbyshire, Simpson, Montaño, Smith, Byrne, Taylor, Baxter, M'Changama, Wabara, Hughes, Winchester, Belezika, Sutherland.
Talk about the game here
Links to Oldham Athletic websites here
Find Pubs around Kidderminster here
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