Harriers 1 Shrewsbury Town 1

A routine friendly was played out at Aggborough this evening with the Harriers and Shrewsbury Town dividing the spoils with a 1-1 draw.  The main talking point before the game got underway was the inclusion of the former FGR and Torquay defender, Kevin Nicholson, in the Harriers starting eleven.  All told he didn't have a bad game and, if signed, he could be a good addition to the team.

In the Shrewsbury side was the former Harriers favourite Mickey Demetriou and also the, rather ample, Liam Lawrence formerly of Mansfield Town, Sunderland and Stoke City.  It was Lawrence that was to get the first sight of goal with a shot from distance that was collected easily enough by Jas Singh in the Harriers goal.  Our first attempt on goal came some ten minutes later when Aman Verma struck an angled shot that beat the Shrews keeper, Jayson Leutwiler, but went just wide.

The scoring was opened five minutes later though when Ahmed Obengs' shot was pushed away by the keeper but only as far as Reece Styche who shot through a crowd of players to put the ball home.  Following that the game became somewhat pedestrian with some decent passing by the visitors and, at times, not from us.  We're crying out for a playmaker but I fear we're not going to see one this side of Christmas.

HT: Harriers 1 Shrewsbury Town 0

Shrewsbury came out the better side in the second half even though they hadn't made any changes at the break.  We did by bringing on Josh O'Keefe for Aman Verma.

James Collins was the first in this half to get a chance when his header went just wide and then Andy Robinson sent a free kick well over the bar soon after.  We should really have scored though when Chey Dunkley, on for Jamie Grimes, got on the end of a Nicholson free kick but his header went just over the bar.

In the seventieth minute the visitors pulled the goal back.  The ginger haired, and a bad haircut, substitute Ryan Woods crossed for Connor Goldson to chest the ball towards Collins inside the box who then side-footed the ball into the corner far out of the reach of Singh.

The game fizzled out to a draw following that goal with Shrewsbury well on top and the Harriers having lost their way.  Yes it is only a friendly but it's still disappointing to see that there is no one out there that came take to game by the scruff of the neck and get some good moves going.  It's just kick and rush.

Harriers:
Singh, Hodgkiss (Green 50), Nicholson, Byrne, Gash (Hales 71), Styche (Reid 77), Obeng, Grimes (Dunkley 60), Verma (O'Keefe 60), Gittings, Gowling.

Sub not used: Lewis.

Shrewsbury:
Leutwiler (Burton 70), Gayle, Demetriou, Lawrence (Wood 70), Grandison, Knight-Percival, Clarke, Wildig, Collins, Robinson (Mangan 70), Caton (Vincent 70). Subs not used: Goldson, Ellis, Smith, Ginnelly.

Ref: Mr B Jones

Att: 1010