Whilds first task will be to get a confidence shattered defence tightened up following the Cambridge catastrophe a week ago. Four goals went into the wrong net during a second half so shambolic that it would make the Mostyn U7's team look world class. Yesterday he bought in a new lad from Birmingham City, Amari'i Bell (it'll be just Amari from now on, I can't be doing with some parents weird ideas for a name) and he'll be acting as cover for Mickey Demetriou at left back although he can play anywhere on the left.
Mickey was missed at Cambridge when Thorn opted to leave him on the bench in preference to Danny Jackman and that backfired big time when Cambridge realised he was the weak point (one of many) and exposed his height ruthlessly. Gary Whild has had more time with both players and has now acted in a positive way by bringing Bell in until the end of the season.Michael Gash almost made his comeback from injury last Saturday following a three week spell out with a hamstring injury but at the last minute it was decided that he wasn't quite ready. Maybe it'll be at Wrexham tomorrow that he makes his comeback.
That's where we're going for our next game and memories of the penultimate league game of last season when we won 2-1 with goals from James Vincent and Gash to take us back to the top of the table above Mansfield. Sadly even though we also won our final game, at home to Stockport, Mansfield were playing twice in the following week and beat Hereford on the Tuesday evening before taking on Wrexham in their final game and also winning that one too.
We went into the play off games against tomorrows opponents and lost both. It was two games too many for a team exhausted by the end of the season.
As we're not having the season that was expected of us then it must be even worse for the Welsh fans seeing their team struggling around the lower reaches for most of the season when they had been expected to be amongst the front runners. They have improved in recent weeks, and won at Hereford last Saturday, but not enough to see them part company with manager Andy Morrell who today joined Shrewsbury as their new assistant manager.
They've installed the assistant manager Billy Barr into the hot seat until a new, permanent manager is appointed but unlike our board they're in no rush and aim to appoint the best manager possible for their status.
Tomorrow they'll be without their recent signing from Hednesford, Elliott Durrell, due to him having to undergo an operation to clear debris from an old knee injury. They have no other notable players missing from the squad.
One player who will be relishing a return to his old stomping ground is Adrian Cieslewicz (right). He joined us a few weeks ago from Wrexham having played for them for most of his career but never truly made the starting line-up week in/week out but being used as an impact substitute and then coming up trumps with a goal or two as shown in the infamous 'hole in the net' goal against us back in November.
It's now up to Gary Whild and his new assistant Tim Flowers wether he follows the same tactic or plays him from the start. Whatever happens I'm sure that Chisel will be giving the Wrexham fans an example of what they threw away when he was allowed to leave.
As for the result of the game itself then that's a hard call and could go either way. One hopes that the team will now get behind Gary now that Thorn has gone and we'll get back to something like our old selves and the results too.
Photo © KHFC
Teams:
Harriers from:
Lewis, N Vaughan, L Vaughan, Grimes, Dunkley, Demetriou, Gowling, Storer, O'Keefe, Jackman, Byrne, Johnson, Riis, Malbon, Bell, Morgan-Smith, Cieslewicz, Rowe, Aloi, Ladapo, Gittings, Gash.
Wrexham from:
Mayebi, Coughlin, Wright, Ashton, Thornton, Livesey, Carrington, Clarke, Harris, Artell, Keates, Tomassen, Ogleby, Hunt, Clowes, Evans, Parle, Bailey-Jones, Anyinsah, Bishop, Ormerod.
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