Match preview Vs Hereford Utd

The Harriers will hope to be getting their festive season results off on the right footing on Boxing Day following that terrible false start at Grimsby last Thursday.  After taking an early lead through Michael Gash we then proceeded to throw it all away, through poor defending and shooting weakly from distance, to give the Mariners a 3-1 victory and leapfrog above us into third place.  We were then pushed down into sixth place by Saturday evening after Alfreton and Barnet won their games to go above us.

Hopefully the consequences of that defeat struck home to the team on Saturday night and made a few of them think deeply about how to rectify the situation.

That rectification should hopefully come at home to Hereford Utd at Aggborough in the first of the two big derby games against the apple pickers and turnip manglers.

We'll be without Josh Gowling (left) for the game after he picked up his fifth booking of the season at Grimsby.  Jamie Grimes is a ready made replacement for him and hopefully his presence will give us a more solid look at the back than there has been in recent weeks although his confidence did suffer a bit at Bradford in the FA Trophy after his own goal gave them an early lead and eventually victory.

Jack Byrne is still out injured but we should have Callum Gittings and Amari Morgan-Smith back for us, after their one game bans, and they should be able to give Hereford a few problems with them on a high at the moment.  They did us, and the rest of the play-off hopefuls, a big favour by beating Cambridge on Saturday but having seen the video of the goal that Michael Rankine scored then it's easy to see why they won.  Shocking defending.  I just hope we'll never be that bad.

The Bulls will be without Dan Leadbitter for our game due to the seasonal five game ban and it's also very unlikely that the former Harriers wideman Dan Pilkington will play either.  He has hardly featured for them after leaving us at the end of last season.

In recent days the Hereford chairman has been appealing for financial help to keep the club afloat.  Fans from all clubs have dug in to help out and to date they have raised over £6,000 of the target of £35,000 in fourteen days.  Sadly that target seems to be unattainable and drastic action will need to be taken by pruning playing staff with backroom staff having already gone.

Our interest lies in getting a result from the next game anyway and that game can't come soon enough with hopefully three points in the bag and us climbing back up into those play-off places.




Harriers from:
Lewis, N Vaughan, L Vaughan, Grimes, Dunkley, Demetriou, A Brown, Tolley, Storer, Fowler, Jackman, Lolley, Angus, Dance, Johnson, Malbon, Morgan-Smith, Gittings, Gash, Blissett.

Hereford from:
R Evans, O Evans, Lloyd-Weston, Bush, James, McDonald, Graham, Purdie, O'Keefe, Walker, Sharp, Smith, Collins, Edwards, Rankine, Artus, J Brown, Pilkington, Gwynne, Odhiambo, M Evans, Lathrope, Williams, Murphy, Edge.

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