Lolley pops in the 3rd to secure the win

The Harriers surged into second place in the League today following a tough home win over struggling Chester.  First half goals from Josh Gowling and Marvin Johnson came close to being undone when we allowed Chester back in to score on the stroke of halftime.  Thankfully we also scored in the final seconds, again on the whistle, when our rookie striker Joe Lolley popped up to score his first goal at professional level.

In bright sunshine (and the floodlights on just in case it got dark???) we kicked off with an unchanged side again.  This time we failed to dominate the first half of the game as we had done in the previous three and by midway through the half we were finding it harder and harder to break a resilient, but niggly, Chester down.

Early chances fell the way of both sides.  Cheyenne Dunkley for us with a header that went over the bar of the visiting keeper John Danby while Gareth Seddon went close with a blocked shot and Alex Titchener bought a fine save from Danny Lewis.

Interesting fact (or not): When John Danby left the Harriers for Chester City in 2006 it was our, then, second choice keeper Danny Lewis who took over from him between the sticks.

With fifteen minutes of the first half to go it was the Harriers who were the first to score, slightly against the run of play.  Kevin McIntyre let the ball go out for a corner to be taken by Kyle Storer.  His perfectly placed delivery was met by the diving head of Josh Gowling to send the ball thudding into the net.

Chesters heads dropped a bit but we failed to take advantage of that until a minute from the end of the first period when Callum Gittings played the ball into the box for Marvin Johnson to run onto and slip underneath Danby.  It appeared to those in the home end that Johnson was fouled just as he shot but instead of awarding the penalty the referee stuck with the goal.

Cruising at 2-0 up and just seconds of the half to go you would expect most sides to shut up shop for a few short seconds?  Not us.  We let the other side score.

Lewis Turner crossed the ball from the right for Danny Harrison to rise highest against a static Harriers defence and head the ball in beyond a wrong footed Lewis and off the post.  The goal was Chesters first goal of the season.

The second half was a disappointing spectacle from a Harrier point of view.  We never really seemed to get into the game and we failed to be able to stamp any kind of authority over the visitors.  All our frontmen were struggling to make any kind of headway against a dogged visiting defence.

Sadly Anthony Malbon was anonymous once again and his confidence is now slowly ebbing away.  Because he was playing alone Michael Gash was having to do all the hard work himself and Marvin Johnson was rarely able to beat his man.  It was time for a change and on came James Dance for Johnson while Malbon made way for Joe Lolley.

The difference didn't show immediately as Chester continued to press us back without any joy for themselves.  They swapped out the ineffective Seddon for Ben Mills but still couldn't turn their possession into shots on goal.

It took Lolley to show them how it should be done.

He got on the end of a Storer corner and played Gowling in but the shock haired defender couldn't quite connect with the ball at the far post.  He then ran onto a long ball forward out of defence and controlled it well before blazing it hurriedly over the bar.  His next, and final, touch was the one that reaped the benefit.

With Chester at the wrong end of the pitch in desperate search of an equaliser Gash broke free and sent a ball through the middle of their defence, splitting them apart.  Lolley took the ball out wide beyond a tiring defender then back in towards goal where he drew Danby out far enough to create a gap on the keepers right that the striker capitalised on and slotted our clinching third goal home and, for himself, his first ever goal at this level.

To be fair like Chesters performance belied their lowly position and they'll soon be making their way up the table but world beaters they'll never be.  In turn we played way below what we are capable of and hopefully will not play that badly at Nuneaton on Monday.

Roll on Monday.

 Goals for Harriers: Gowling 32, Johnson 45, Lolley 90
 Goal for Chester: Harrison 45

REFEREE:

Mr R Whitton Esssex